Maharashtra ATS Bust Racket Of Making Bangladeshi Citizens To Indian Nationals

Mumbai, 28th February 2022: The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra State has busted a racket of human trafficking in which Bangladeshi nationals were brought to India by crossing the Indo-Bangla border.

According to ATS, the modus operandi was to bring Bangladeshi nationals to India by crossing the border on foot either by cutting border-fence or by walking in through the open border, to immediately obtain Aadhar Cards in their names from a UIDAI Centre in Bangaon, North 24 Parganas Distt., 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”, an officer said.

ATS has so far arrested three Bangladeshi nationals, including a minor girl of 17 years. Out of these three, accused Kajal Shaikh, 28 yrs, had succeeded in getting Indian Passport on the basis of forged Indian documents, whereas the other two were in the process of obtaining the same. A local person in Mumbai, one Santosh Varne, 52 yrs, is the fourth arrested accused in the case who helped them in getting Indian passports. He has established himself as a passport agent in past 8 to 10 years. He supplied forged BMC documents, viz. Birth Certificate and School Leaving Certificate, to the accused and helped them get Indian Passport on the basis of the said forged documents.

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 are in old format when the name of Mumbai was Bombay. This was done to make the verification difficult.

One Sardar Shaikh alias Monjil Mondal, a resident of Sindhrani village in the jurisdiction of Bagdah Police Station, Bangaon, North 24 Parganas Distt., West Bengal, is the kingpin of this human trafficking racket, who brought to India the three arrested accused and other Bangladeshi nationals by crossing the border, facilitated them obtain Indian Aadhar Cards from a UIDAI centre in Bangoan, West Bengal, before sending them to Mumbai and other cities.

ATS said that Sardar Shaikh alias Monjil Mondal is a criminal on record of Bagdah Police Station, West Bengal. He has four cases registered against him in the recent past, including three under section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and relevant sections of IPC and other laws, wherein he has been accused of cutting border fence and committing human trafficking across the border. He is the main wanted accused in the case and efforts are on to arrest him.

An ATS team visited West Bengal and gathered evidence in the case with cooperation from West Bengal Police. Further investigation into the case is in progress.