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A former office assistant of the Department of Immigration and Emigration was arrested by Nawagamuwa Police on Saturday night (19) for allegedly possessing 48 passports belonging to other individuals for the purpose of preparing forged documents.

Police said a machine used to examine security features on passports and currency notes, along with a smartphone, were also recovered from the suspect, a 70-year-old resident of Ihala Bomiriya, Kaduwela.

According to Police, the Divisional Intelligence Unit of the Nawagamuwa Police had received information that forged documents were being prepared at a residence in the area to assist an individual in obtaining a visa through an embassy.

Acting on the information, a team from the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Nawagamuwa Police arrested the suspect during a raid conducted on the instructions of Nawagamuwa Police OIC Chief Inspector Susantha Jayanath and under the direction of Sub-Inspector R Shreemaal.

During questioning, the suspect reportedly told Police that he had worked as an office assistant at the Department of Immigration and Emigration for about five yeaRs He had subsequently worked at a recruitment agency in Battaramulla, from where he had obtained the passports, according to Police.

Investigations have revealed that the suspect allegedly removed visa pages from old passports using steam and carefully attached them to new passports to make it appear to embassies that individuals applying to travel to various countries on tourist visas had previously travelled abroad.

The suspect reportedly told Police that he charged Rs 20,000 per person for the service.

Police said visa pages had been removed from around 15 of the 48 passports recovered from the suspect.

Further investigations are being conducted into the alleged document forgery and the circumstances under which the passports were obtained.