Hyderabad: As the passport racket involving underworld don Abu Salem left many red faces in Andhra Pradesh government, the regional passport office in Hyderabad virtually washed its hands off the muddle, saying it had issued the passports based on police verification "as per normal procedure".

"It is the responsibility of the police and revenue authorities to verify the antecedents and residential proof of passport seekers," sources in the regional passport office said on September 23.

"In this case, the applications had come as per normal procedure. After receiving the verification certificates from Kurnool district, passports were issued in August 2001," sources said.

They pointed out that passport office had no independent way of verifying the nativity and antecedents of applicants and police verification was the only basis for issuing passports.

It has now come to light that mafia don Salem, wanted in Mumbai bomb blast case, had managed to secure passport for himself under a fictitious name Ramil Kamal Malik and his two women accomplices Monica Bedi and Sabina Azmi under the names Sana Malik Kamal and Neha Asif Jafri respectively, all with residential addresses in Kurnool town.

"The concerned staff in revenue, police and postal departments have to be blamed for this," sources said.

Meanwhile, the state Home Minister T Devender Goud, while assuring stringent action against the involved, spoke of "loopholes in the system" and the need for the centre and state governments to sit together and sort them out.

PTI