E-Paper
5 African women flee govt centre, one held
The incident came to light when one of the women slipped and fell while scaling the 6 feet wall of the centre.
Five African women arrested for overstaying escaped from Government State Home for Women near Nimhans in the early hours on Tuesday, Bengaluru police said. The five women were arrested as part of the special drive against foreigners overstaying in the city. While three of them are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two are Nigerians, police said.
The Bengaluru police re-launched the campaign against overstaying foreigners, after protest over the alleged death of a Congolese student in police custody turned violent on August 2. The Bengaluru East division police have arrested 13 women from various African countries as part of the campaign so far.
According to police, the five women escaped around 2.30 am on Tuesday. “The women came out of their rooms saying they wanted water. One of the staff at the centre gave them water and asked them to return to the room, but they diverted their attention and sneaked out,” said a staff member of the home for women .
The incident came to light when one of the women slipped and fell while scaling the 6 feet wall of the centre. “Hearing her call out, our staff rushed out, shifted her to the hospital and reported the incident to the police,” the staff member added.
Police are on the lookout for the women who have escaped. “We have formed teams to search for the missing persons,” said a statement from Bengaluru police.
The incident comes at a time when Bengaluru police are considering a different approach to handle the crime involving foreign nationals, especially selling banned narcotics. A senior Bengaluru police officer, who didn’t want to be named, said that the department has made a proposal to deport foreign nationals arrested for overstaying or caught selling narcotics.
“If a charge sheet is filed and they are sent to court, they have to remain in the city till the case is over. In case they are granted bail, they would continue to indulge in criminal activities. So, we have been proposing to deport them at the earliest after dropping charges and blacklisting them from entering the country again,” said the officer.
There are more than 900 foreigners whose visas have expired but are still staying in the city, with at least 43 with a criminal case against them, as per the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO). “In several cases, they leave Bengaluru as soon as they get bail, and we are unable to track them. So, we are of the opinion that deporting them for violation of the visa condition is a better solution than booking them. The proposal is in the works,” said the officer.
In 2019, the Karnataka government had constructed a detention centre in the outskirts of Bengaluru. Located in Sondekoppa village near Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural district, this is the first detention centre to be opened in the state. 30-40 people have been detained in the facility as of now.
This was constructed after then Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai told the Karnataka assembly that a survey of illegal foreigners will be conducted and those found violating the norms, would be lodged here before deportation. This proposal, however, didn’t materialize.
As many as 70 foreign nationals were arrested in 2020 under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) in comparison to 44 in 2018 and 38 in 2019, according to Bengaluru police, while the number of arrested persons in 2020 under the NDPS Act increased by 200% last year, as per police records.
