Bangladesh Embassy officials in Belagavi
The immigrants managed to get Aadhaar cards, passports and other documents by producing fake proof with the help of agents.
Belagavi: With the state government taking serious action and rounding up alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Belagavi region, a team of higher officials from the Bangladesh Embassy visited the city to gather information about the alleged illegal immigrants arrested.
So far, the police have arrested 12, but the actual number of illegal immigrants in North Karnataka region is said to be much higher. Most of them have managed to get Aadhaar cards, passports and other documents by producing fake proof with the help of agents.
A team of senior police officers along with 12 members of the Bangladesh Embassy, headed by Mushraf Hussain and Ravi Verma, met each of the arrested at the Hindalga Central Prison and gathered information about their actual identities and nationality and the way they managed to gain entry into the country.
According to police records, all the arrested were brought to Belagavi by agents, who later helped them get small jobs, besides all other government identity cards and documents.
The Embassy officials were here to ascertain the nationality of all the arrested and are trying to talk to each of the arrested individually, police sources said.
The officials also visited the Vijayapura jail where some more such illegal immigrants are jailed. Most of the arrested were working in slaughterhouses located at different parts of Belagavi city for the past some months.
Belagavi Police Commissioner T.G. Krishna Bhatt had recently written to the Union External Affairs Ministry through the state Home Department about the rising number of alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the region.
Recently, the Pune police arrested a resident of Belagavi at the Pune airport and seized his fake passport. The arrested, Mohammad Bepari (26), was about to board a flight to Dubai when he was trapped. Bepari, revealed during the interrogation that he was an illegal immigrant and he also produced an identity card he got in Bangladesh. Based on his information, the police rounded up many more illegal immigrants in Belagavi. The arrested got their names changed after migrating to India and had their own network.