The Detection of Crime Branch’s (DCB) plans to prevent former gangster Abdul Wahab Baloch from leaving the country came a cropper when the latter did not even turn up at the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday.

Baloch was scheduled to catch a flight to Mumbai along with his family for his onward travel to Mecca. He had planned for the Haj pilgrimage this year after spending 17 years in the Sabarmati Central Jail.

After his release from prison, Baloch moved a Sessions Court asking for the DCB to release his passport. Though Baloch had about 13 criminal cases against him and was out on bail, the judge observed that none of the offences warranted him to be restricted from going abroad. Following the order, the police released his passport (no. H7216652) and the latter got it renewed for a year (from August 18, 2009 to August 17, 2010). The police did not challenge the order for nearly five months. But just three days ago, they issued a circular to all national and international airports to confiscate Baloch’s passport, after making futile attempts like writing to travel agents and other authorities not to allow him to board a flight to Mecca. The police were apparently tipped off that he was planning to flee to the Middle East to establish his own underworld empire like his predecessors Rasool Party and Sharif Khan.

Commissioner of Police S K Saikia: “We were tipped off on the 16th of this month. The circular was issued as we had intelligence inputs that he was planning to escape.” Asked if the inputs were fit enough to seek cancellation of the passport under Section 10 III of the Indian Passports Act, Saikia shrugged the question, saying these were operational matters. Section 10 III of IPA states that “the passport authority may impound or cause to be impounded or revoke a passport or travel document, if the passport authority deems it necessary so to do in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, its friendly relations with any foreign country, or in the interests of the general public.”

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