500 Bangladeshis living illegally in Mumbai arrested in past 3 months: Cops

After the alleged attack on actor Saif Ali Khan at his Bandra residence in January, the Mumbai Police have intensified their crackdown on Bangladeshi immigrants staying illegally after acquiring forged documents. A total of 500 such individuals have been arrested from across the city in the past three months, said a senior police officer. The process to deport them to their home country is underway.

Khan was allegedly stabbed multiple times in the middle of the night by Shariful Islam Shehzad, a Bangladeshi national, who was later arrested after a massive manhunt by Mumbai Crime Branch from a construction site in Thane. The alleged intruder had been staying in a chawl in the Worli area of Mumbai.

“Mumbai police teams have been using ground intelligence techniques to retrieve valid documents of people staying in scrap dealers’ locations, shanties near coastlines, construction sites, shelter homes, abandoned buildings, chawls, etc. before initiating legal procedures to send them back to their home country,” said an officer.

Cash and fake documents were seized from the accused. FILE PIC

The arrested Bangladeshi nationals had acquired forged documents such as Aadhaar cards and some had even gotten forged passports, said an officer in Mumbai police. “Most Bangladeshi nationals sneak into India illegally via West Bengal,” said a well-decorated officer in Mumbai police.

The senior police officer told mid-day that in the last three months, Mumbai Police have registered 307 FIRs under the Passport (Entry into India) Rules, 1950 and Foreign Nationals Act, 1946, from January to March this year and nearly 500 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested in this period. The process to deport them is underway. “We have deported 180 illegal immigrants to their home country in Bangladesh in the last year,” said the officer.

Complex web

A ground-level officer told mid-day, “A complex international human trafficking network is operating this racket, illegally smuggling Bangladeshi nationals into India via the West Bengal route. Young women are enticed with promises of employment as domestic workers in India, only to be exploited and coerced into the flesh trade. Meanwhile, male Bangladeshi nationals are brought to India under the guise of working as labourers at construction sites.”

“It appears that it is relatively easy for Bangladeshi nationals to cross the international border near the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. After trespassing into India, they manage to obtain forged Aadhaar cards and other citizenship-related documents, which enable them to travel and settle across the country,” said the officer requesting anonymity.

“Those who could not get their forged documents made in West Bengal discreetly fan across different states where their forged documents are generated by exploiting the loopholes in the system,” said the officer. The Ministry of Home Affairs, of late, ordered a thorough investigation into the cases of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in India. Authorities have also been directed to identify and act against individuals or networks that have facilitated illegal immigrants in acquiring documents, including Aadhaar cards and other citizenship-related paperwork.

How illegal immigrants are deported

Once an illegal immigrant is arrested, the authorities charge them under relevant legal provisions and await a court order before initiating deportation procedures. “Illegal immigrants can only be deported to their home country after we secure a conviction in the case and the punishment is completed. Since court proceedings take time, the deportation rate is lower than the number of arrests,” explained a Crime Branch officer.

One challenge law enforcers face is lack of detention centres, facilities where individuals found to be staying unlawfully in a country are held until their deportation process is completed. “We don’t have a dedicated detention centre. So, we have to keep them in a police lockup at Azad Maidan,” the officer added. Officials from the I Branch of the Mumbai Police are responsible for deporting immigrants by transporting them via train to the West Bengal border. There, the immigrants are handed over to the Border Security Force, which coordinates with its counterparts to complete the process.