4 held in Pune for helping Bangladeshis get overseas jobs on Indian passports

Four members of a human-trafficking gang in Pune have been arrested for forging documents to send 70 Bangladeshi nationals to Gulf countries on Indian passports. The arrests follow the detention of 14 Bangladeshi nationals in Borivali on charges of residing in India without valid documents and attempting to acquire identity documents using forged papers. The gang charged INR 7 lakh ($9,800) per person for transportation to India and acquiring passports and visas for jobs in the Gulf.

A Borivali police team on Monday arrested four members of a human-trafficking gang in Pune who in the last two years have forged identity and residential documents to send 70 Bangladeshi nationals to Gulf countries on Indian passports.

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While three of the accused – Sujon Sopikar Shaikh, Mithu Shaikh and Mubin Javed Mandal - are from Bangladesh, the fourth one, Sainath Yelwad, is a local resident, a police officer said.

The arrests were a follow-up to an investigation by the police who on October 20 arrested 14 Bangladeshi nationals in Borivali on charges of residing in India without valid documents and attempting to acquire identity documents using forged papers. Based on their interrogation, the police busted a gang in Nalasopara and arrested three Bangladeshi citizens - Suman Momin Sardar, Omar Farooque Molla, and Salman Ayyub Khan.

About Monday’s development, the police officer said Mandal, a doctor by profession, and Yelwad were in-charge of preparing fake Aadhaar and PAN by altering the birth certificates through a website where PDF documents could be edited.

A search is on for another person. “The wanted accused, Gangaprasad Karpe, owns an Aadhar centre in Pune where Yelwad used to work,” police sub-inspector Pradeep Kale said.

Police officers said one Rahul Singh alias Sharahrukh Khan, who is a Bangladeshi national and resides in Nalasopara, brings people from across the border by four-wheelers through areas which are used as cattle feeding patches.

Once the men are in West Bengal, Singh makes sure that they are kept in rented apartments in Kolkata before transporting them to Pune and Nalasopara where his other gang members would follow the same method while finding accommodation, another police officer said.

“Singh and his gang charges ₹7 lakh per person to transport them to India and then acquire passports and visa for jobs in Gulf,” said Ajay Bansal, deputy commissioner of police, zone 11.

The police said after preparing their identity documents, Sujon and Mithu used to search for people who had dead relatives and would ask them for their photos and IDs to make fake rent agreements and electricity bills based on which Indian passports could be secured.

“Singh has fled to Bangladesh. After the arrest of 21 people, including the agents, infiltration bids on Indian borders have been reduced by at least 10%,” Bansal claimed.

The police have charged the four accused with cheating the Indian government and acquiring passports using forged documents under sections of the Passport Act.