Madanayakanahalli police, on Tumakuru Road, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, arrested a gang of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants helping other illegal immigrants from the country to forge and acquire identity documents in and around the city. They were caught during the course of an investigation into an ATM theft case in which an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant, with valid documents, was arrested.
The group comprised not only Bangladeshi immigrants, but also locals, including a pharmacist with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) Primary Health Centre (PHC) on a contractual basis.
The accused had helped in the creation of as many as 125 Aadhaar cards for the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants over the last one year. “We have seized 31 Aadhaar cards , 13 PAN cards, 25 voters ID cards, 92 enrolment forms, 26 fake letterheads and 5 seals from the accused. Efforts are on to track down the beneficiaries,” said M. Chandrasekhar, Inspector General of Police (Central Range).
As soon as the racket was busted, the district police launched a special drive to identify illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who are residing in and around the city with valid documents. The police also said that there was a lapse during the verification for Aadhar enrolment, and that they would write to the UIDAI for necessary action.
The police have arrested a total of nine persons. The prime accused, Sydul Akoon alias Shahid Ahmed, a native of Kulla town in Dhaka, came to India through the porous border in Tripura illegally in 2011 and settled in Hottappanapalya in Madanayakanahalli on the outskirts of the city to work as a ragpicker. He used his local contacts to become a scrap dealer and set up SA Plastic Agency, police said.
He also obtained Aadhaar, PAN and other documents by forging the documents, and opened several bank accounts to send the money obtained through crime, Mr. Chandrasekhar, said.
The other accused who helped Sydul in his operation are his son Suman Islam, Mohammed Abdul Aleem, from Bangladesh, and locals identified as Suhail Ahmed, from D.J. Halli, Mohammed Hidayath, Mohammed Ameen Sait, Rakesh, Aysha, Syed Mansoor and Ishtiyaq Pasha.
Investigating officer Manjunath B.S., said among the accused Rakesh is a software engineer who lost his job during the first wave of the pandemic and started working with the accused to forge documents, including fake seal and recommendation letter of gazetted officials.
Ishtiyaq Pasha, working as a pharmacist on contract basis at a BBMP health centre, was instrumental in getting a fake seal and signatures of officials for obtaining Aadhaar for the accused. He also helped in forging documents to create fake COVID-19 negative reports and vaccine certificates.
Further investigations revealed that Sydul, using the Aadhaar cards, opened three bank accounts and made a transactions worth ₹4 crore. The accused would send the money illegally to his country through many bank accounts.
