While the seized passports were original, the documents submitted to obtain them were fake. Many of them are Sri Lankan Tamils.
ADGP Davidson Devasirvatham. (Twitter)
S Davidson Devasirvatham, a 1995-batch IPS officer, was one of the most powerful officers of the Tamil Nadu Police… until a couple of days ago.
On the evening of Tuesday, 27 June, the Tamil Nadu Home Department transferred Davidson, who was serving as chief of the Intelligence Unit of the Tamil Nadu Police, to the post of the additional director general of police headquarters.
The sudden transfer order came from the Union Home Ministry on account of his alleged involvement in the “fake passport scam” while he was serving as the commissioner of police of Madurai City.
Davidson was appointed to that post on 10 June, 2018, and was the top cop in the city for two years — till his promotion as ADGP on 4 July 2020.
In March 2019, a 57-year-old Sri Lankan woman named H Meherbanu, who was married to an Indian and was residing in Morsingpettai in Beema Nagar in Tiruchirappalli, was caught by immigration at the city’s airport while she was boarding a flight to Sri Lanka as they found that she had obtained an Indian passport with fake documents.
The immigration officer, while checking her passport, asked about her place of birth. The woman confessed that she was born in Sri Lanka. However, the passport mentioned that she was born in India.
Since her words were contrary to the place of birth mentioned in her passport, the officials detained her.
Three months prior to this incident, three more Sri Lankan nationals were caught by immigration authorities at various airports — including Madurai and Chennai.
On 28 June, 2019, a 41-year-old Sri Lankan citizen was arrested when he tried to travel to Sri Lanka by air using a passport obtained using fake documents.
On 17 January, 2020, a 61-year-old resident of the Sivaganga district was arrested for trying to fly from Madurai International Airport to Dubai on a fake passport.
Though separate cases were filed in all these incidents, the officials found a few similarities in all the cases.
While the seized passports were original, the documents submitted to obtain them were fake and, in most of the cases, the arrested individuals were Sri Lankan Tamils.
Thus it was that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) under the Union Home Ministry started its discreet investigation.
An IB officer, who was a part of the investigation, explained to South First that when someone is arrested in a fake passport case, the local police or immigration officials usually share the details with the IB team.
There were reports of such cases from January 2019 to June 2019. In all the cases, the passports were original but their holders were found to have obtained them using fake documents with the help of a few agents.
“The addresses mentioned in the passports were fake. Even the educational certificates and the documents used as identity proof — like rations cards, voter IDs, and Aadhaar cards — were fake,” the officer said.
He added, “We found that people residing in Chennai, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore, Sivaganga, and Tiruchy obtained passports with a Madurai address. Most of the passports were verified by the Avaniyapuram police, which falls under the Madurai City Police.”
A few years ago, the Avaniyapuram police station, which was under the control of the district police, was attached to the City Police Commissionerate that falls under the Thiruparankundram range.
“The issue was escalated to the central investigation agencies. The CBI and NIA were pressed into action and a shadow investigation was conducted into the issue,” said the IB officer.
According to sources from the intelligence agencies, over 200 passports are believed to have been issued from Madurai to Sri Lankan nationals and other people ineligible for a passport during Davidson’s stint as the city’s police commissioner.
The CBI had also started a discreet investigation, tracing the role of central government employees in the scam, the IB officer said.
On 27 September 2019, the Q Branch — established as an anti-Maoist outfit in the late 1960s, and later merged with the CID and probed Sri Lankan terrorists before turning its scanner on terrorists in general — filed cases under Sections 120B, 420, 465, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 12(1A)(a), 12(1A)(b), and 12(2) of the Passport Act, 1967, against four travel agents.
It also raided the properties of a few passport officers attached to the Madurai Regional Passport Office.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Intelligence Department was also alerted about the incident and that the Q Branch police were conducting a separate investigation. Eight FIRs were filed regarding forgery under various sections.
The Q Branch police found that 53 fake passports had been obtained from the jurisdiction of the Avaniyapuram police station.
Further, the people who had obtained Indian passports with fake documents remained unknown and difficult to trace.
The Q Branch arrested 15 people — four Sri Lankan Tamils and 11 travel agents — in connection with the case.
During the investigation, 124 such passports were recovered, and the Q Branch found that 28 passports were issued to Sri Lankan Tamils. Separate cases have been filed in connection with them in different parts of the state.
Meanwhile, in July 2021, the CBI registered a case against Madurai Regional Passport Office Senior Superintendent Veeraputhiran, who was the granting officer at the Passport Seva Kendra in Tirunelveli.
It alleged that he fraudulently issued Indian passports to Sri Lankans.
The CBI arrested another person identified as Ramesh in connection with the case.
The probe agencies found that Sivakumar, the then assistant commissioner of police who headed the Madurai City Intelligence Unit, colluded with Ilavarasu, then an inspector with the Avaniyapuram police, and Dharmalingam, who was the inspector of police in the intelligence wing then, to issue the passports.
An intelligence officer from the Q Branch told South First that after digital signatures were introduced for issuing passports, the commissioners of police (CPs) in cities and superintendents of police (SPs) in districts were handed over the digital signature stamp.
They were in turn deputed a responsible officer to do the verification and upload Passport Verification Reports (PVRs).
Explaining the role of the police in the process of passport verification, the officer said that the application is sent through the portal for field verification to the jurisdictional police station of the district or city police where the residence of the applicant is located.
“There are four logins for the police at various levels: One for the field inquiry police officer, one for the station house officer (SHO), one for the district/city police, and the final verification will be done by the DSP/ACP (authorised by the SP/CP) who acts as the nodal officer for passport verification,” he said.
At the police station, the login is given to the field inquiry police officer — invariably the head constable of the police station — who is nominated by the SHO for passport field verification.
The login is provided to the SHO, who accepts the verification of the field inquiry police officer and submits the status of verification to the district/city office, he explained.
“Accordingly, Davidson, the CP of Madurai City, who was the concerned authority of issuing clearance for police verification in the Madurai City jurisdiction, deputed Assistant Commissioner of Police Sivakumar to use the digital signature for clearance and obtained the digital signature dongle in the name of ACP Sivakumar from the passport department,” the officer told South First.
After the Q Branch started its investigation, Sivakumar was posted as ACP of the Thiruparankundram range, which controls the Avaniyapuram police limits, where the scam took place.
Meanwhile, Davidson was promoted to the post of ADGP and transferred to the Technical Services unit. After the DMK came to power, Davidson was posted as ADGP of Intelligence.
Eswaramoorthy, who was the then IG of Internal Security, wrote to the DGP requesting permission to conduct an inquiry into Davidson in the case that was forwarded to the home secretary for his consent.
Though the government sanctioned the prosecution of ACP Sivakumar, the letter was forwarded to Davidson to provide documents related to the case.
In a letter to Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi in November last year, Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai said that 74 percent of the fake passports issued were to Christian applicants.
He also alleged that Davidson’s wife, who ran a passport agency, allegedly shut it down after the issue snowballed into a controversy.
Annamalai also accused Davidson of destroying evidence related to the passport scam when he was the Madurai CP. He sought an NIA investigation into the issue and demanded the suspension of Davidson.
As there was no movement in the case, one S Murugaganesan filed a case in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court in July last year, seeking a CBI inquiry into the issue.
Opining that the case had serious national-security implications, the court directed the Q Branch to complete the investigation within three months. The time limit was subsequently extended by a period of six months.
But the Q Branch, which was under the direct control of the Intelligence Unit, submitted to the court that a final report was filed with the Judicial Magistrate IV of Madurai.
The high court gave Davidson a clean chit and directed the trial court to expedite the case and disposed of the petition without ordering a CBI enquiry.
On the first week of May 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered an FIR (Cr.No1/2019) in the passport scam cases filed by the Q Branch police at Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchy, Sivaganga, Tirupathur, Salem, Erode, and Coimbatore.
Based on the available shreds of evidence and the final report filed by the Q Branch, the ED commenced its investigation.
According to sources, a team of ED officials recently visited Madurai and enquired with the passport officials.
Speaking to South First, whistleblower Savukku Shankar said that he had filed a complaint regarding the scam with the central agencies.
“About 10 months ago, there was a meeting between the Union Ministry of External Affairs officials and Union Home Ministry officials, where they discussed the fake passport scam and the complaints received regarding it. More than 700 non-citizens are reported to have obtained Indian passports and left the country, and their whereabouts are not known to any agency. This is viewed as a huge security threat,” Shankar said.
Breaking.
Passport Scam @CMOTamilnadu @tnpoliceoffl @chennaipolice_ pic.twitter.com/XFyIz8zyiQ
— Savukku Shankar (@SavukkuOfficial) June 27, 2023
He added, “One of the key accused in this case is Sivakumar, formerly ACP of Intelligence Services in Madurai, whom Davidson tried to save from being charged.”
He continued: “All these facts were conveyed to the chief minister through various channels, which fell on deaf ears. Then came the Union Home Ministry’s communication. What I have learnt is Udhayanidhi Stalin stepped in and apprised his father about Davidson, which resulted in Davidson’s transfer out of Intelligence.”
On 24 May, Chennai-based journalist Varaaki filed a complaint with the Union Home Ministry, requesting it to initiate an inquiry into the alleged role of Davidson in the passport scam.
On 14 June, the Ministry forwarded the complaint to the Tamil Nadu government for further action against Davidson.
Since the communication was from the Union Home Ministry against the head of the state intel chief, the home secretary forwarded the communication to the Chief Minister’s Office for further action.
According to sources in the state’s Home Ministry, the officials took the Union Home Ministry’s “communication” to Chief Minister MK Stalin.
After he had a discussion with senior ministers and officials, Davidson was shunted from the Intelligence Unit’s top post.
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