Bangladeshi national gets fake Indian passport, arrested from Bandra

The accused said he came to India seeking to escape extreme poverty in his village back home

The Nirmal Nagar police in Khar (East) recently arrested a 22-year-old Bangladeshi national for allegedly possessing a fake Indian passport.

A special court in 2016 convicted 14 Bangladeshis for procuring identity cards.(HT File Photo)

The man, Mohammad Momin Shaikh, is a plumber, said the police. He was arrested from Bandra Terminus last week. The police seized the passport.

He has been booked under the Passport (Entry into India) Rules, 1950. The police are verifying how he managed to get a fake passport. He has confessed to the police that he had come to Mumbai in search of a job owing to extreme poverty in his village in Bangladesh.

Last year, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) wrote to the ministry of external affairs asking them to tighten the passport verification procedure. In October 2015, the agency arrested 21 Bangladeshi nationals for cheating and forgery in Bhiwandi in Thane district.

A special court in 2016 convicted 14 Bangladeshis for procuring identity cards. It sentenced them to one year’s rigorous imprisonment.