Kolkata, July 30 The West Bengal Police, on Wednesday, arrested a Bangladeshi national from Canning in South 24 Parganas district, who had been living in the country for the last 16 years, police said.
The police have said that the person, who had been identified as Akbar Ali Mollah, had voter identity cards from both Bangladesh and India.
According to the police, Akbar had been living in Madhukhali Bhandaripara of Itkhola Gram Panchayat under Canning police station for the last 16 years.
Acting on a tip-off, the police officers from Canning police station reached his residence late Tuesday night.
After a Tuesday night-long questioning, Akbar was finally arrested on Wednesday morning.
"A Bangladeshi voter card was recovered from the arrested person. The name on that card is Mohammad Akbar Ali Ghazi. However, he was known in India as Akbar Ali Mollah. He will be produced in a district court today. We will pray for his custody to investigate the matter further," a district police official said.
During the police questioning, the arrested person said that his 'real home' was in Satkhira in Bangladesh.
The police are trying to find out how Akbar came to India, how he managed to get an Indian identity card, and finally get his name registered on the voters' list.
Efforts are being made to collect all that information from the arrested person.
The police also said that strict measures will be taken against anyone for aiding and abetting infiltration and sheltering infiltrators in Bengal.
An investigation is also underway to find out whether there is any 'agent cycle' behind this, whose task is to arrange for fake Indian identity documents for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The arrest assumed significance as the BJP has been accusing the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal of sheltering infiltrators such as Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas.
Last month, the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer's Office told that a thorough investigation removed the name of Newton Das, the youth who was active in the student 'movement' in Bangladesh last year and featured as a registered voter in the Kakdwip Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, has been finally removed from the voters' list.
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