BENGALURU: Sixty Bangladeshi nationals, including women and children, believed to be staying illegally in the jurisdiction of Marathalli and Ramamurthy Nagar police stations, were arrested in a joint operation by the Extremist Cell of the City Intelligence Wing and the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police early on Saturday. They will now be put on a train to Delhi from where they will be deported to Bangladesh.
Around 5 am, the team went to Croma Road in Marathalli where the Bangladeshi nationals were staying in the sheds and tents on land belonging to a scrap dealer and rounded up 31 persons. A similar raid was conducted around 9 am on Kalkere Main Road in Ramamurthy Nagar police limits where 33 people were picked up.
“Based on our intelligence report, we learnt that there were many Bangladeshis staying illegally in some parts of the city. We formed a team and raided these two areas and arrested the illegal migrants,” said Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao.
Of the 64 people detained, two were from West Bengal and two others had valid passports. They were let off after detailed questioning. In the afternoon, the police detained three more Bangladeshis while they were trying to escape. Bhaskar Rao reportedly planned to visit Kalkere Main Road where the raid was conducted, and an escort vehicle was sent ahead.
By then, some Bangladeshis who had gone to work, had returned to their sheds for lunch. About 15 of them saw the police jeep and tried to escape, but police managed to detain three of them who are being questioned. According to sources, the Extremist Cell collected details about illegal migrants over the last few months, but no action was initiated. Last week, the police commissioner learnt about a report submitted by the cell and directed his officers to act.
Most of them were working as scrap collectors and the police are investigating who their employers and contractors were. One of the women who has been arrested is the wife of a contractor (thekedar), who is believed to be involved in bringing Bangladeshis illegally to India. She allegedly revealed that her husband has gone to bring more Bangladeshis to Bengaluru. Meanwhile, another contractor, identified as Jamaal, has been arrested.
“The 60 others were arrested under Foreigner’s Act and they will be directly deported to Bangladesh with the help of FRRO. We will continue such raids,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil.