3.In this regard, the respondent filed counter, stating that the petitioner was already issued with a passport on 09.11.1999, which was valid upto 08.11.2009. As suppressing the above fact, the petitioner filed a fresh application for issuance of passport before the respondent. Hence, action was taken and a penalty of Rs.5,000/- was imposed on the petitioner. Thereafter, the respondent received a information from the Vice-Counsel, Singapore Consulate, Chennai on 04.10.2001, stating that the petitioner's passport was tampered and replaced by changing the photograph with signature of another person and the said passport was used for traveling various countries, viz., Singapore, Malaysia, Srilanka, etc.,. Based on the above information, the matter was referred to the Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch-CID, Chennai, for discrete enquiry, to find out the involvement of the petitioner in tampering with the passport. The petitioner was also informed about the status of his application and so far the respondent did not received any reply from the police department. Further, the Superintendent of Police, SB CIDII, Chennai transferred the case to Superintendent of Police, Tiruvannamalai District to conduct discrete enquiry. Upon receiving the report from the Superintendent of Police, Tiruvannamalai District, the application for issuance of fresh passport of the petitioner will be considered by the respondent in accordance with law.
