Mumbai Police arrested eight Bangladeshi nationals from Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai township for allegedly residing in India illegally without proper documentation, an official said on Tuesday. After receiving a tip-off, Navi Mumbai's anti-trafficking cell on Monday morning raided a flat located in a housing complex in the Belapur area's Shahbaz village from where the accused were apprehended. 


Upon reaching there, they discovered five women and three men, all aged between 20 to 40 years, living there illegally without valid documents. All of them, identified as Bangladeshi citizens were staying in the flat for the last four years, a police official from NRI Sagri police station stated.


According to the police, the eight persons have been taken into custody and booked under provisions of the Passports Act and the Foreigners Act. Further investigation into the matter is currently underway.


Four Bangladeshi Immigrants Held In Mumbai


Mumbai Crime Branch's Unit 6, in December 2023 arrested four Bangladeshi immigrants for allegedly staying illegally in the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai area. The arrests were made at different locations over a period of two days.


As per Hindustan Times's report, the accused were identified as Akram Noornabi Shaikh, who lived in Wadala, Monali Khatoon Rafik Shaikh, 35, and Lina Shajan Haldar, 26, both lived in Navi Mumbai's Kopar Khairane and Abushahid Abdul Hamid Alimiya, 26, who lived in Kamothe at Navi Mumbai.


The crime branch officials acted on a tip-off and laid a trap in Wadala's Jaikarwadi area where Shaikh was arrested and his Aadhar card was seized. During the investigation, it was confirmed that he was a native of Chitagaon, Bangladesh, and had arrived in India illegally.


His questioning led to another arrest of a person named Haldar who was apprehended from Kopar Khairane. On investigating further, the police got to know that he had come to India with the help of Monali Shaikh, who was arrested after she was also found staying without valid documents, Hindustan Times reported. 


Later, the police received information about Alimiya who worked as a delivery boy in Navi Mumbai. His parents came to India and had been living illegally in the country. Alimiya was however born in India.  After his father died, he went back to Bangladesh with his mother where he studied till class 5 but came back again illegally. He was arrested by the police in December 2023.