THANE: The Navi Mumbai police have arrested three members of a family from Bangladesh residing illegally in India for the last 30 years, officials said on Tuesday.
On November 24, 2024, the anti-human trafficking cell (AHTC) sleuths apprehended Sharo Abhtab Sheikh (48) and his wife Salma Saro Sheikh (39), living in a flat at Juhugaon at Vashi in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai, during a drive against illegal immigrants and their documents were checked.
The couple produced their flat ownership documents, Aadhaar and PAN cards, passport, voter ID, ration card and photocopies of their birth certificates allegedly issued by a rural hospital at Jaynagar, West Bengal, after which they were let off, a police release said.
The police, however, took up verification of the documents submitted by the couple.
A team of the AHTC also went to the rural hospital in West Bengal on February 2 to verify authenticity of the birth certificates.
Following inspection, the chief medical officer of health, South 24 Parganas, informed the Navi Mumbai police that the birth certificates produced by the couple were fabricated and fake, the release said.
Also, an intelligence source had sent to the police a nationality card of the couple, stating they were from Bangladesh, it said.
The AHTC on Sunday arrested the couple and their 22-year-old son who was born in India, the police said.
The couple allegedly entered the country through the Bogna border checkpost, evading the attention of the security personnel there.
They obtained all the IDs illegally in India, the police said.
An FIR has been registered against the three under sections 318(4) (cheating by personation and cheating), 336(2) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will) and 340(1) (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita as well as provisions of the Passport (Entry into India) Act and the Foreign Nationals Act, the police said.