Chennai/Ramanathapuram: A 60-year-old Pakistani national, who was staying in a lodge in the coastal district of Ramanathapuram without a passport and other travel documents was arrested on Saturday. He had at least four fake Aadhaar card copies with him.
The arrest comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Rameswaram to inaugurate a memorial for the former president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on July 27.
The person was identified as Mohammed Yunus, from Karachi. He was arrested from a lodge in Ervadi, police said. He was carrying Rs 2,500 in Pakistani currency and Rs 3,000 in Indian currency. He is a narcotics dealer, who posed as a businessman dealing in nuts, police disclosed.
Pakistan national entered India on illegal ferry, forged Aadhaar
During interrogation, it came to light that he had come to Tamil Nadu illegally by a boat from Sri Lanka in the month of May and visited Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Ajmer. After travelling to several places in trying to procure narcotics he had reached Ervadi, from where the police picked him up on Saturday.
Two others from Ervadi, identified as Syed Abu Thahir and Abdul Aziz, who had allegedly promised to help him in procuring narcotics, were also arrested by police.
The Pakistani national was produced before a magistrate at his residence in Paramakudi and was remanded to judicial custody. He is being moved to the Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai, sources added.
Police said the man spoke fluent English, Hindi, Urdu and Sinhalese. He had his schooling till class IV in Sri Lanka, as his parents, who are from Karachi, were living there. Later they shifted to Pakistan. Some narcotics cases have been booked against Mohamed Younus in Sri Lanka.
This time, during his visit to India, he was supposed to procure two cases of brown sugar from an agent in Ahmedabad. “Yunus reached Ammapattinam beach in Pudukottai district on May 2 using an illegal ferry. From there, he travelled to various places in India and returned without the contraband. It appears the agent in Ahmedabad had failed to deliver narcotic consignments and so asked him to travel back. He was waiting for his Sri Lankan agent to arrange an illegal ferry to get back to the island nation,” a source here said.
His photograph has been pasted on somebody else’s Aadhaar cards and he had photocopies of such Aadhaar cards police said adding that a Sri Lankan in Chennai had helped him to get such duplicate cards. He has been booked under various IPC sections for cheating, forgery, for fraudulently forging a genuine document and impersonation and 420 for cheating. He was also booked under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act 1946 and 3 (a), 6 (a) of the Passport (entry to India) Rules 1950 for illegally entering into the country. Police are also looking into his possible involvement in arms smuggling as drugs and arms, in most cases, will have same players and use same routes.
