Mumbai: Sahar police arrested a 36-year-old Bangladeshi man at Mumbai International Airport on July 22 after immigration officials suspected his Indian passport was forged when his dialect resembled that of people who speak in Bangladesh, police said.The accused, identified as Babu Biswas alias Tapas Biswas, allegedly entered India with his wife and family members through the porous border in West Bengal in 2016 and stayed in Kolkata for almost seven years, working as a daily wage worker, police said. He made at least two trips to Maldives and one to Colombo before his journey of flying abroad using an Indian passport came to a halt at the airport, police said.Biswas was aged 26 when he and his family managed to travel to West Bengal. “Biswas is one of the many thousands who infiltrated India and managed to get hold of Indian documents like Aadhaar card, PAN card while staying in Kolkata. Later, in 2023, he used the documents to avail an Indian passport.
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He travelled to Maldives and Colombo for work without getting caught. The team is gathering more information about the agents who helped him in getting the forged documents,” said a police officer of the Sahar police station.According to the complaint, Biswas approached the immigration counter for stamping of his arrival using an Indian passport. Assistant immigration officer Sumit Kumar (30), said: “I was assigned duty at Counter No. 23 and was conducting immigration checks for passengers arriving in Mumbai from various countries by different airlines. At 3.30 am, a passenger came to my counter for immigration check and submitted his Indian passport and boarding pass. The said passenger arrived in Mumbai from Colombo by flight No. UL141. When I checked the Indian passport, I suspected that the person was from Bangladesh. Therefore, I asked him some questions, but he could not provide satisfactory information.”Police said Biswas was presented before the immigration wing in charge and duty officers for further enquiry. “It became clear that he was from Faridpur in Bangladesh. His nationality was confirmed after he called his wife, Rakhi Biswas, at home via WhatsApp and asked her to send some documents as proof of his Bangladeshi nationality. He then received a xerox copy of land documents in Bangladesh registered in the name of Babu Biswas’ father,” said Kumar in the FIR.A Sahar police officer said Biswas revealed that he illegally entered India from Bangladesh in 2016 with his family, stayed in Koikhali, District Nadia, in Kolkata and worked as a labourer. “While residing in West Bengal, he obtained a PAN card and Aadhaar card with the help of a local person. He also obtained an Indian passport in 2019 from the Passport Office in Kolkata based on documents. He travelled twice to Maldives in 2023 with the Indian passport,” said the officer.Recently, the Mumbai crime branch said they initiated a process to deport 53 such illegal Bangladeshi nationals caught in the city. Mumbai police probe showed that organised forgery rings were operating that helped Bangladeshi nationals acquire Indian passports by fabricating local identity proofs such as Aadhaar and PAN cards. Investigations by anti-terrorism squads and local police revealed that agent networks, sometimes colluding with local post office or police verification staff, forged documents and manipulated clearance reports.
