Illegal infiltration: ED arrests 4 including Bangladeshi nationals

Ranchi: Four people, including two Bangladeshi nationals, have been arrested by the ED in a money laundering case related to illegal Bangladeshi infiltration into Jharkhand and neighbouring areas, official sources said on Wednesday.

Rony Mondal and Sameer Chowdhary are nationals of the neighbouring country while Pintu Haldar is an Indian.

An Indian woman named Pinki Basu Mukherjee is the fourth to be arrested in the case on Wednesday.

The first three, suspected to be touts, were arrested on Tuesday night from West Bengal for "facilitating" illegal human trafficking in India, the sources said.

The four have been taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The federal probe agency had launched searches at 17 locations in poll-bound Jharkhand apart from West Bengal in this money laundering case on Tuesday.

"Incriminating" items like fake Aadhaar cards, forged passports, illegal arms, immovable property documents, cash, jewellery, printing paper and machines and blank proforma used for forging Aadhaar ID were recovered during the raids, the federal agency had said in a statement on Tuesday.

Polling is on in 43 Assembly seats of Jharkhand on Wednesday. The remaining 38 seats of the state will vote on November 20.

The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) had slammed the BJP-led Centre, alleging that the central agency's action was an attempt to "help the saffron camp establish its Bangladeshi infiltration narrative".

The Congress, an ally of the JMM, also made a similar allegation, saying the raids were not for Bangladeshi infiltrators but a last attempt to save the BJP's political ground in the state.

The searches came after the ED filed a case under the PMLA in September to probe an instance of alleged infiltration and trafficking of some Bangladeshi women into Jharkhand leading to the generation of alleged slush funds.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders have accused the state government of aiding such infiltration, leading to the altering of the demographic landscape of the tribal-dominated areas of Santhal Pargana and Kolhan regions during the assembly poll campaign.

Addressing an election rally in Deoghar on Wednesday, Modi said infiltration was a major concern in Jharkhand and the tribal population in Santhal Pargana had been reduced to half.

The JMM-led coalition government in Jharkhand allowed infiltrators to become permanent citizens, Modi alleged.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused the JMM-led ruling coalition of converting Jharkhand into a 'dharmashala' for Rohingyas and Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in Seraikela on Monday that if the BJP is voted to power in Jharkhand, then a committee would be formed to identify and drive out infiltrators from the state besides reclaiming land grabbed by them.

The ECIR (enforcement case information report) filed by the central agency stems from a Jharkhand Police FIR filed at Bariatu police station in Ranchi in June.

The police FIR, filed on the complaint of a Bangladeshi woman who allegedly infiltrated into the country from the India-Bangladesh border with the help of touts to find work, has named around six women as accused who were arrested following a raid at a local resort.

The woman who filed the complaint escaped from a similar guest house and reached the police station. Police also recovered a "fake" Aadhaar card from one of these women.

Police pressed multiple Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections like 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intention) in the FIR.

It also invoked Section 12 of the Passport Act (knowingly furnishing any false information or suppressing any material information with a view to obtaining a passport or travel document) and Section 14A of the Foreigners Act (penalty for entry in restricted area) in the complaint.

The FIR quoted the women complainant saying that they were trafficked into India from Bangladesh allegedly for prostitution by luring them in the name of getting a job in beauty salons.