Arrested Bangladeshi model's source of funds, luxury cars under Kolkata Police scanner

Kolkata, Aug 3 The money trail of the deposits accumulated in the two bank accounts of Santa Paul, the arrested Bangladeshi model from Kolkata, is currently under the scanner of the Kolkata Police.

Sources said the investigating officials are also thoroughly examining the inward and outward remittances from these bank accounts to find out whether fictitious transactions were made through them.

At the same time, city police insiders said, the investigating officials are also probing the source of funds for purchasing the four luxury cars that are registered in the names of the arrested Bangladeshi model.

"The name under which those cars were purchased is also being investigated. Initial investigation revealed that she also had a plan to build a guest house. She also took a loan for it. However, it has been found that Santa Paul did not take the loan in her own name. Probe is on to find out how she managed to get the loan," said a city police official on Sunday.

On July 28, the officers from Park Street police station arrested Paul from a flat in Kolkata's Golf Green area in south Kolkata. The police became suspicious after seeing the documents she had provided while applying for a passport. During the arrest, several Bangladeshi documents were recovered from Santa Paul's Golf Green flat.

It is learnt that Paul, a model by profession, entered India with a valid visa. However, instead of returning to her country before the expiry of her visa, she managed to secure fake Indian documents like the Aadhaar card and the Voters’ ID card for herself during that interim period.

According to police sources, two cards were found with the same Aadhaar number. One of them has an address in Kolkata, while the other has an address in Burdwan. In addition, a voter card in Santa Paul's name was also found at the Burdwan address.

"The investigation is on to find out whether she has ever lived in Burdwan and why she moved to Kolkata from Burdwan. The information about her voter card found at the Burdwan address has already been sent to the Election Commission of India. The process of verifying the information in that voter document is going on," said the police source.

On Saturday, the police said that as per information from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Paul's visa expired in 2021, and thereafter, she had been living in the country illegally.

With his development, questions have started surfacing on how effective the surveillance of the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) is in such matters.

The sleuths of Kolkata Police are also probing to figure out whether Paul was working as a spy in the country, just like Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra.

The sleuths are probing this new angle after learning through her social media account that Paul went to the India-Nepal-China border and recorded a video.

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