NEW DELHI: The jury is still out on why he left his country Bangladesh. Yet he knew once in India, locating him would be like finding a needle in the haystack. So, the ‘grand voyage’ of Apu Barua began two years ago.
The 26-year-old Bangladeshi national illegally entered India, and in coming months also managed to take immigration authorities of many countries for a ride.
The police said Barua changed his identity from a Bangladeshi national to an Indian and then to a Buddhist monk in order to leave India and settle in a European country. But his plans came a cropper when he was caught in Germany and deported to India.
Upon landing in Delhi in the intervening night of November 18-19, he was taken into custody and booked under relevant sections of the IPC and the Passport Act.
It all began on August 11, 2021, when Barua entered India by crossing the Indo-Bangla border from Matiranga (Bangladesh) to Sabroom in Tripura. After reaching India, he stayed in a hotel near IGM Hospital, Agartala, for four days during which he procured his birth certificate (issued by the Agartala hospital), Aadhaar and PAN with the help of an agent.
And he got a new identity — Anik Roy. Barua then left for Pune via Kolkata where he started working in a hotel. Later, he worked as a security guard in a society in Shivajinagar. With the help of a local, he changed his Aadhaar card address from Tripura to Maharashtra and applied for a passport.
Barua, a Chakma tribal, impersonated as a Buddhist monk and travelled to Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
But that was not all, he then managed to forge a membership letter of a respected Buddhist Gompa (association) and used it to procure an offer letter from the Spanish Buddhist association and obtained a Schengen visa.
Like all chickens come to roost, Barua was caught in Germany.