7 Bangladeshi nationals held in UP for illegally staying in India: Police

Seven Bangladeshi nationals were arrested here as they did not have any valid documents for staying in the country, the Uttar Pradesh police said on Sunday.

They were staying at a hotel near a bus stand in the cantonment town of Babina and were from Bangaldesh capital Dhaka, Jhansi Senior Superintendent of Police D Pradeep said.

He said the seven Bangladeshi nationals were arrested during routine checking near the bus stand and they did not have valid documents for staying in India.

"For some time, they were in the business of selling fish oil. During routine probe, no criminal cases have been found against them but they have been booked under the Foreigners Act for illegally staying in India," Pradeep said.

The arrested were identified as Mamoon Sheikh, Milan Sheikh, Aslam Sheikh, Falan Sheikh, Sijer Sheikh, Mukul Sheikh and Monu Vaid, police said.

Superintendent of Police (City) Rahul Srivastava said, "The police is probing as to how the Bangladeshi nationals managed to cross the border without any visa or passport. Police are also probing whether they were staying in a sensitive area like the cantonment with the motive of committing some crime."

In January this year, a special court in Lucknow convicted three Bangladeshi natives who were arrested in 2017 for living in the country without valid documents.

The three were awarded five-year imprisonment and also fined Rs 19,000. They were convicted for cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery of valuable security and section 14 of the Foreigners Act.

The trio were apprehended at the Lucknow Railway Station while they were boarding the Howrah-Amritsar Express and allegedly had a link with the Ansarullah Bangla Team, a banned outfit.

In the last few years, several Bangladeshi nationals have been held in Uttar Pradesh for staying without valid travel documents.

In May last year, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) had arrested six Bangladeshi citizens from Agra for allegedly preparing fake passports.

The ATS got information that some Bangladeshis, living illegally in the state, were making fake Aadhaar and ration cards and were then using these documents to get Indian passports made.

Similarly, in 2018, the ATS had picked up three persons, including a Bangladeshi national, for their alleged involvement in preparing fake passports, Aadhaar cards and other documents for illegal immigrants.

The Bangladeshi national, identified as Yusuf Ali alias Nazrul, was arrested from Muradnagar in Ghaziabad and two locals -- Ahsan Ahmad and Wasim Ahmad -- were nabbed from Deoband in Saharanpur.

In September 2017, three illegal Bangladeshi immigrants -- Mohammad Imran, Rajidudeen and Mohammad Firdaus -- were arrested from the Charbagh railway station in Lucknow. The three brothers were staying in western Uttar Pradesh for years.

The police said they were originally residents of Jessore district in Bangladesh, but had got their Aadhaar cards made on the basis of fake addresses. They stayed in Deoband, where Imran was employed as a teacher in a madrasa.

In 2017, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) had arrested another illegal Bangladeshi immigrant -- Abu Hannan alias Abu Hana -- who was staying in India for 15 years. He had married an Indian woman and got his Indian passport and Aadhaar card made.

Abdullah-Al-Mammon, an alleged key operative of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) -- an al Qaeda-inspired Islamic extremist group in Bangladesh -- was arrested from Muzaffarnagar in a separate case. The names of Imran, Rajidudeen and Firdaus came to light during his interrogation.

Yet another illegal Bangladeshi immigrant, Abdullah, was arrested from Kuteshara in Muzaffarnagar district on August 5, 2017. Abdullah was arrested from a place of worship, where he worked as a preacher.

Six persons, including five Bangladeshi nationals, were arrested from Dulhipur village in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh in November 2018. Acting on a tip-off, the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested them and seized from their possession fake high school certificates, mark sheets and four voter identity cards.