In a major early morning swoop, the police on Wednesday arrested 22 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, including 12 women, from Rajodi village located near picturesque tourist spot of Arnala in Palghar district of Maharashtra.
Acting on a tip-off, the personnel from the Anti Terrorist Cell and Anti Human Trafficking Unit of the Palghar police arrested 22 Bangladeshi nationals who were living illegally in hutments in Rajodi village at 1.30 am on Wednesday and took them to local police station for further investigations.
The arrested illegal Bangaldeshi immigrants— comprising 12 women and 10 men—have been booked by the police under sections 3(A), 6(A) of the Indian Passport Act of 1920 and also section 14 of the Foreign Nationals Act of 1946.
The police said that the arrested persons were in the age-group of 19 to 52 years. They hailed mostly from the border districts Jessore and Shantakhira districts in Bangladesah. They were living in India for varied periods. “Most of them were doing some petty jobs,” the police said.
“They do not have any valid documents for their stay in the country,” the police said.
The district headquarter–town of Palghar is located 104 km from Mumbai. The Palghar and their counterparts from the neighbouring district of Thane are trying to ascertain if they more number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are holed up in both the districts.
The arrest of the 22 illegal Bangladeshi nationals comes on the heels of the Raj Thackeray-led MNS organising a massive rally at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai to demand the immediate deportation of illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh residing in Maharashtra.
On its part, the Shiv Sena has also reiterated its commitment to detect and deport illegal Bangladesh immigrants from Maharashtra.
This is not for the first time that the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have been arrested in Maharashtra. There have been such arrests in different parts of Maharashtra from time to time.
When the Shiv Sena-BJP government was ruling the state between 1995 and 1999, hundreds of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had been arrested by the police, taken by trains and were left at the Bangladeshi border.
At that time, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had given a call for detection and deportation of all illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Maharashtra and other parts of the country.