Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra got an email from the passport office in Kolkata on Wednesday informing him that a police verification request had been sent to the police department in response to his application for renewal of passport.
The mail came a day after he had received another mail from the passport office saying his application had been kept on hold because of an “adverse police report” against him and was asked to visit the regional passport office.
The mention of another round of “police verification” has left the chemistry teacher perplexed, he said.
“I came to know about this case only recently when I applied for the renewal of my passport. Yesterday, I was told that my application was on hold because of an adverse report from the police. Today, there is a fresh communication from them that my application had been sent for police verification again. I wonder what the police will say in their next report,” Mahapatra told The Telegraph.
According to the rule for police verification, an officer from the applicant’s local police station or an officer from the security control office will get in touch with the applicant and fix an appointment for meeting him or her to verify documents.
If an applicant has a criminal case pending against him or her, the person is asked to get a no-objection certificate from the relevant court before the police clearance is granted.
Mahapatra, who had a case against him for allegedly circulating an internet joke on the chief minister, had been following this procedure to get his passport renewed every year till January this year, when the charges against him were dropped.
He was later told that he was entitled to a “normal” passport, with 10 years’ validity, since the charges against him had been dropped. The professor then applied for a normal passport. However, during the first round of inquiry in February, he was told about another criminal case that was still pending against him. Mahapatra said he had “no clue” about it all these years.
When this newspaper contacted deputy commissioner (south-west) Saumya Roy about the case, he said: “According to the records, there is a case dated April 30, 2016, for which a chargesheet dated March 5, 2018, was submitted on December 12, 2018. He has been shown absconding in the chargesheet. There is no further information available about this case with us.”
According to the police records, the case was started under IPC sections dealing with unlawful assembly, theft, wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing assault and criminal intimidation. The police said the theft charge was dropped from the chargesheet.
Mahapatra and seven others stand accused of assaulting the complainant, Subrata Banerjee, and snatching Rs 5,000 from him. Police sources said officers found during the investigation that charge of snatching money was false. So, the theft charge was dropped.
Mahapatra has been requested to get in touch with the police office concerned if the verification is not done in three weeks. A senior officer at Lalbazar said: “The normal process of verification will be followed.”