In a search operation launched across some 50 locations in Bengal and Sikkim, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed a passport racket issued on the basis of false papers and, reportedly, booked two suspects so far.

The raids are being conducted in connection with a case the agency has registered against 24 people, including 16 government officials, for getting passports illegally issued on the basis of forged papers, officials said. Mostly, Nepalese citizens were being issued passports in exchange for money, it was learned.

A senior superintendent of Passport Seva Laghu Kendras (PSLK) in Siliguri and a middleman were apprehended, sources in the agency were quoted to have revealed to news outlets. The passport officer from the Gangtok PSLK has reportedly been identified as the main accused. The middleman, a hotel agent from the same area, was also arrested with Rs 1.9 lakh in his possession.

While the raids, which began on Friday afternoon, continue to take place at multiple locations in Calcutta, Howrah, Siliguri and Darjeeling, a team of CBI officers have also reached Gangtok and its surrounding areas. Sources revealed that several incriminating documents have already been recovered from suspects.

"Searches are underway, and many suspects are under the radar. We have recovered documents pertaining to the involvement of government officials in the racket," an agency official said.

Sources also confirmed that an individual, suspected to be a keeper of valuable information about the fledgling racket, was detained from New Jalpaiguri and is currently facing agency examination.

Earlier in the day, a team of six CBI officers landed at the home of one Shekh Sahanur, a resident of Mahisali in the Ulberia area of Howrah even as central armed forces guarded the premises. Sahanur was examined for nearly six hours and subsequently detained and taken away for further examination.

The suspect’s neighbours confirmed that Sahanur was into facilitating passports and visas and ran an office out of Salt Lake.

A CBI team also visited the Passport Seva Kendra office near the Ruby Hospital crossing on the EM Bypass on Saturday.

Of late, the Centre has been issuing warnings to citizens against getting trapped by fake passport service providing websites and mobile apps that charge a premium for issuing passports and, in the process, collecting personal data from customers. The tendency of defrauding people through fake digital outlets has been on the rise in the wake of digitalization of services to do away with the stranglehold of middlemen in passport services but which, at the same time, tend to overwhelm a section of citizens who find the process a tad daunting.