2 Bangladeshis among 4 arrested for infiltration
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested four persons, including two Bangladeshi nationals, on Wednesday in a money laundering probe linked to alleged illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals.
The move comes a day after the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids across 17 locations in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Agency sources said the raids were still on in some areas of both states.
Rony Mondal and Sameer Chowdhary are Bangladeshi nationals, while Pintu Haldar in an Indian. They were arrested in the Bangladeshi infiltration case for facilitating illegal human trafficking in India. An Indian woman, Pinki Basu Mukherjee, has also been arrested in the case.
The raids began early on the morning of November 12, a day before the polling for the first phase in Jharkhand.
ED sources said they had nothing to do with the elections. The raids were conducted following inputs about the presence of Bangladeshi infiltrators at various places in Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The raids, which continued till late night on November 12, were still on in some places in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
The raids led to the recovery of incriminating items such as fake Aadhaar cards, forged passports, illegal arms, immovable property documents, cash, jewellery, printing papers, printing machines and blank pro forma used for forging Aadhaar cards.
In September, the agency had initiated proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to investigate alleged trafficking of Bangladeshi women into Jharkhand and subsequent generation of illicit funds. The ED initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Jharkhand Police under various Sections of the IPC, 1860, Passports Act, 1967, and Foreigners Act, 1946.
