This misplaced bag was in the custody for Delhi customs officials for close to a year. When it was opened recently, the belongings inside sent shock waves that ran from Delhi to Ahmedabad. More than a 100 passports have been recovered from the bag belonging to 23-year-old Savan Rajnikant Trivedi, an Amdavadi. Majority of the passports have names of Gujaratis. Delhi police on Monday evening registered an FIR under Passport Act in the case and has launched a man hunt for Trivedi.

The bag was under the custody of Delhi airport customs officials since February 2, 2011 when Trivedi had travelled in a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Delhi. For months customs officials tried to get in touch with Trivedi but when he couldn't be traced, the bag was opened in November.

"We believe that Trivedi feared being caught and left the bag at the airport. We have recovered 105 passports, out of which 89 are issued from Ahmedabad passport office and 15 are from Jalandhar and one from Chandigarh. We are sending out the details of the seized passports to the centers from where those were issued.

Teams are getting ready to travel to Gujarat for tracking Trivedi," said R A Sanjeev, DCP, Indira Gandhi International Airport.

"We suspect that the passports belong to those who have already flied out of India. These were being smuggled back into the counAhmedabad:This misplaced bag was in the custody for Delhi customs officials for close to a year.

When it was opened recently, the belongings inside sent shock waves that ran from Delhi to Ahmedabad. More than a 100 passports have been recovered from the bag belonging to 23-year-old Savan Rajnikant Trivedi, an Amdavadi. Majority of the passports have names of Gujaratis. Delhi police on Monday evening registered an FIR under Passport Act in the case and has launched a man hunt for Trivedi.

The bag was under the custody of Delhi airport customs officials since February 2, 2011 when Trivedi had travelled in a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Delhi. For months customs officials tried to get in touch with Trivedi but when he couldn't be traced, the bag was opened in November.

"We believe that Trivedi feared being caught and left the bag at the airport. We have recovered 105 passports, out of which 89 are issued from Ahmedabad passport office and 15 are from Jalandhar and one from Chandigarh. We are sending out the details of the seized passports to the centers from where those were issued. Teams are getting ready to travel to Gujarat for tracking Trivedi," said R A Sanjeev, DCP, Indira Gandhi International Airport.

"We suspect that the passports belong to those who have already flied out of India. These were being smuggled back into the country for others to use for 'kabootarbazi'," Sanjeev added.

Delhi Police Special Cell had recently arrested five men and seized 46 Indian passports, 45 Nepalese, five Bangladeshi and an American passport, 11 fake visa stickers and 12 fake visa stickers of the US, Canada, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Delhi police believes that Trivedi might be a first timer in the trade and was acting as carrier for some dubious visa agent based in Gujarat who was active in Kabootarbazi. The city police officials have too started investigations in the case.

"We have received news about the seizure of passports but no official communication has happened with Delhi police yet. But we have started investigation and are trying to find out if Trivedi's named has cropped up in any case earlier," said joint commissioner of police, special branch, Shamsher Singh. The special branch managed the immigration desk at Ahmedabad airport.