A joint raid Thursday morning, the special branch (SB) and local police, arrested 28 Bangladeshi illegal immigrants from Rafi Nagar and Baba Nagar slums in Shivaji Nagar. Sources said the raid was conducted between 5 and 7 am.
“We had information several illegal immigrants were staying in these areas. A total of 14 men, six women and eight minors were arrested,” said deputy commissioner of police Sanjay Shintre.
All accused have been handed over to Shivaji Nagar Police for interrogation on the route they took to enter the country before coming to Mumbai. Police are also verifying whether any of the arrested has a criminal record.
“The accused were working as daily wage construction labourers. None of them has identification papers. We have booked them under Passport Act as well as Foreigners Act,” said senior inspector Radheshyam Agrawal of Shivaji Nagar Police Station.
SB has been conducting a drive against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants since the beginning of the year, with hundreds of cases registered all over the city. Cops said the immigrants stay in densely populated slums to avoid the eye of the authorities and try to pass themselves off as natives of West Bengal. “Since January, we have arrested nearly 1,300 Bangladeshi immigrants staying illegally in India and 200 of these have been deported. Deportation is a long process. Once formalities in a particular case are completed, the batch is taken to Kolkata. From there, BSF escorts them to the Bangladesh border,” Shintre said.
28 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants arrested in Mumbai raid - Indian Express