The Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad had arrested four people including a minor and busted an international human trafficking racket. The police during investigation found the Bangladeshi nationals were brought to India by crossing the Indo-Bangla border. The four includes three bangladeshi nationals and one local Indian agent.
The ATS sleuths during investigation found the Bangladeshi nationals were brought to India. By crossing the border on foot or by cutting the border-fence or by walking in through the open border.
ATS has so far arrested three Bangladeshi nationals. "An accused Kajal Shaikh, 28 yrs, had succeeded in getting Indian Passport on the basis of forged Indian documents, whereas the other two including a minor were in the process of obtaining the same. After crossing the border they immediately obtained an AADHAR cards in their names from an UIDAI Centre in Bangaon, North 24 Parganas, District, West Bengal on the basis of forged Indian documents and send them to various cities in India including Mumbai armed with the fraudulently obtained AADHAR Cards. On reaching various cities, these illegal immigrants obtained other forged Indian documents like birth certificates and school leaving certificates, using which they further obtained Indian Passports," said an official from the ATS.
One of the arrests includes Santosh Varne 52, a local from Mumbai used to help other accused in getting passports. "Varne has established himself as a passport agent in the past 8 to 10 years. He supplied forged BMC documents, viz. Birth Certificate and school leaving certificate, to the accused and helped them to get an Indian passport on the basis of these forged documents," said an official.
ATS has seized a booklet of around 100 blank school leaving certificates which are generic and do not mention any school name. As per the modus operandi of the racket, the name of the school used to be stamped on the certificates after filling in the details of the illegal immigrants. These blank school leaving certificates had old name of Mumbai mentioned as Bombay. This was done to make the verification difficult." added an official.
The police are in search of Sardar Shaikh, Monjil Mondal, a resident of Sindhrani village, Parganas District, West Bengal. He is said to be the kingpin of this human trafficking racket, who brought the three arrested accused and other Bangladeshi nationals by crossing the border. "It was also found that he facilitated them to obtain Indian Aadhar cards from an UIDAI centre in Bangoan, West Bengal, before sending them to Mumbai and other cities," added the official.
