Hyderabad: The Begumpet police on Saturday arrested a passport agent for allegedly cheating the public by charging exorbitant fees for applying passport applications.
Mohammed Arif (54) a resident of Dabeerpura, is a passport agent by profession. A team of Begumpet police caught him while he was present at the regional passport office in Secunderabad. The police found him with one bag containing passport application forms.
Mohammed Arif was attracting innocent people and misleading them by claiming that he will get the passport process done fasters by collecting huge amounts from them in Tatkal and regular applications. The police verified his claim and found that he was taking excess money for passport processing in l=regular and Tatkal approximately ranging from Rs 1500 to Rs 5000 for each passport.
The agent was booked on the charges of cheating the public.
The regional passport officer informed that if anybody wants a Tatkal passport they shall apply online every Saturday and there is especially a Tatkal passport facility for needy people without any brokerages.
| 
