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Lapse by central agencies: Minister after arrest of 4 Pakistan nationals
Parameshwara said that more Pakistani nationals are believed to be residing in the area and will soon be apprehended
Days after the arrest of four people in Bengaluru Rural for allegedly possessing forged Indian passports, home minister G Parameshwara on Sunday slammed the central intelligence agencies for their “failure” to identify these suspects earlier despite their stay in India for past 10 years.
Parameshwara said that more Pakistani nationals are believed to be residing in the area and will soon be apprehended. He also said: “They [the Centre] have agencies like RAW and IB. They should have kept a close watch on such matters. The fact that these people made it to Bengaluru and obtained passports reflects a lapse on their part,” he said.
“However, once our police got information, they acted swiftly and did an excellent job arresting them. We’ve now received further details that more Pakistani nationals are hiding here. They will also be arrested,” he said.
The four foreign nationals were held by the Bengaluru police in the Jigani area of Anekal taluk in Bengaluru Rural district. The first arrests, of Rashid Ali Siddique and his wife, were made on September 29, and two more people were arrested based on information provided by Ali. Siddique had reportedly been living in Bengaluru under a false identity since 2018.
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Investigations revealed that Siddique and his wife had entered India illegally using forged documents. They had previously lived in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal before settling in Bengaluru. The couple reportedly moved to India after fleeing Pakistan due to religious differences.
Before moving to Bengaluru, Siddique had first settled in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and later in Delhi in 2014, where he obtained an Indian Aadhaar card, driving license, and passport. By 2018, he relocated to Jigani with his wife and her parents. Acting on a tip-off from the central intelligence department, local police raided the family’s residence and arrested them on September 29.
Siddique and other have been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), along with provisions of the Passport Act.
Parameshwara pointed out that the four arrested people had been residing in India for nearly a decade but had only recently moved to Bengaluru. He also questioned why central intelligence agencies failed to identify the illegal activities during their extended stay.
“According to the information I received, they have been in India for the last 10 years, but they arrived in Bengaluru a year ago. I’m not sure how their stay went undetected for so long. If they were here for a decade, why didn’t our intelligence agencies catch them earlier? They managed to make fake passports, and this needs to be thoroughly investigated.”
Commenting on the arrests, Bengaluru Rural superintendent of police CK Baba confirmed that the investigation is underway. “We have registered a case, and the investigation is in progress. The suspects possessed fake Indian passports, and we are verifying all their details,” he said.
