The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday launched raids in 17 locations across Jharkhand and West Bengal in connection with a money laundering probe involving illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals, people familiar with the development said.
The federal agency had in September filed a PMLA case based on an FIR lodged at Bariyatu police station in Ranchi over the trafficking of some Bangladeshi and Rohingya girls from the neighbouring country into Jharkhand. It is alleged that the girls had obtained identity documents, including Aadhaar, in Hindu names.
ED is probing a large syndicate operating across Jharkhand and West Bengal that is facilitating the illegal infiltration.
Illegal infiltration has become a poll issue in Jharkhand in this year’s assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally in September, accused the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government in the state of “supporting” Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators for vote bank politics, and alleged that the tribal population is “rapidly decreasing” in Santhal Parganas region as these illegal migrants are establishing control over the panchayat system.
Union home minister Amit Shah has also accused the JMM of going soft on infiltration and said last week that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will bring a law to prevent transfer of land to infiltrators.
{{/usCountry}}Union home minister Amit Shah has also accused the JMM of going soft on infiltration and said last week that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will bring a law to prevent transfer of land to infiltrators.
{{/usCountry}}Shah said that Bangladeshi immigrants grab tribal land by marrying tribal girls under false pretexts. He has promised that the BJP government will identify and deport each infiltrator and take back the land they had usurped from the tribal people.
The assembly elections will take place in two phases in Jharkhand - November 13 and November 20.