AHMEDABAD: For just 15,000 taka paid to a Bangladeshi agent, a woman illegally crossed into India and lived undetected for years before being arrested by Surat’s Special Operation Group (SOG) Police on Saturday.
The woman, identified as Rasida Begum Jahangir Ali Sheikh, entered India illegally four years ago. Initially residing in Mumbai for a year, she later settled in Surat, Gujarat, where she worked in various spas.
Using forged documents, Rasida obtained an Aadhaar card and other Indian identification to live and work undetected. During her arrest, the police also recovered a document identifying her as a Bangladeshi citizen.
“I paid 15,000 Bangladeshi Taka to an agent to cross into India,” she revealed during interrogation by Surat’s SOG. She detailed her journey, explaining how she entered India through West Bengal, travelled to Mumbai by train, and eventually moved to Surat, where she had been renting rooms at various locations for the past three years.
Interrogation further revealed that Rasida hails from Baranga village in Bangladesh. She used an agent to cross the restricted border near Jessore district, entering India through Bangon in West Bengal.
The incident forms part of a broader trend of illegal infiltration in Gujarat. Surat Police data, released three months ago, disclosed that the SOG apprehended 22 Bangladeshi nationals who had entered the industrial city illegally over the past year (2023–24).
In a similar crackdown last month, Ahmedabad police’s crime branch detained 48 illegal Bangladeshi nationals across various locations in the city, including eight women and six minors.
Investigators uncovered cases of human trafficking, with Bangladeshi women being brought into India and forced into prostitution. Additionally, they found a network involved in forging documents to create fake identities for the detainees.
The growing issue of cross-border infiltration and document forgery raises serious concerns about national security and exploitation in Gujarat.
