MALAYIDAMTHURUTH:Ask any local in Perumbavoor about Murshidabad — a remote district in West Bengal bordering Bangladesh — and they are all too familiar about the place. While it may be purely coincidental, nearly 30 per cent of migrant labourers from West Bengal in Perumbavoor hail from Murshidabad as per their voter ID cards. Even Biju Molla, the accused in the murder of Nimisha Thampi, hailed from Murshidabad as per his voter ID card details.
Even though intelligence agencies and Kerala Police have repeatedly warned about illegal immigrants from Bangladesh reaching the state disguised as natives of West Bengal, nothing has stopped the inflow of Bangladeshis.
Right from 2011, the Intelligence Bureau had warned about the flow of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh to various states after obtaining fake electoral ID cards.“It’s obvious that an organised racket is operating in West Bengal to help illegal Bangladeshis get voter ID cards. Our probe has revealed that the address mentioned in the ID card is usually Murshidabad,” said an intelligence officer.
According to a spokesman of the private firm where Molla was employed as a daily wager, “We have been collecting the photo ID copies of the migrant workers whom we engage for different works in the company. The photo ID of Molla shows that he hailed from Para-Durlabherpara, Paschim Sahebrampur, Jalangi, Murshidabad, 742305.”
Based on the details collected from various sources, there are contractors hailing from West Bengal who bring in migrant labourers to Kerala. In the case of Molla, he was brought by a contractor identified as Hasbul, who has been taking up various contract works for about 10 years.
As per officers, there are 62,441 migrants workers in the state. The government was able to get the number based on the number of ID cards provided to migrant workers in the state under the AAWAZ health insurance scheme.