Ranchi: Four people, including two Bangladeshi nationals, have been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to illegal infiltration from Bangladesh into Jharkhand and neighbouring areas.
Rony Mondal and Sameer Chowdhary, both Bangladeshi nationals, and Indian national Pintu Haldar were arrested on Tuesday. An Indian woman, Pinki Basu, was taken into custody in this case on Wednesday.
All four accused were apprehended from Kolkata, West Bengal for “facilitating” illegal human trafficking into India, the federal agency said in a statement.
The ED is taking transit remand to bring all of them to Ranchi, it said.
In this case, the ED launched searches at 17 locations in poll-bound Jharkhand apart from West Bengal on Tuesday.
The agency said its probe found that a “syndicate” operates “extensively” across West Bengal and Jharkhand and it is engaged in facilitating the proceeds of crime out of the said activities.
The agents of this syndicate help in illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi citizens into India and provide them fake documents to obtain Indian citizenship, it said.
This is “corroborated” from the seizure of mobile phones containing various incriminating chats relating to monetary transactions in lieu of the said illegal activities including prostitution by the trafficked girls, according to the ED.
During the searches, documents containing the details of payments made in lieu of the prostitution racket being run by the syndicate were recovered, the agency said.
“Incriminating” items like fake Aadhaar cards, forged passports, illegal arms, immovable property documents, cash, jewellery, printing paper and machines and blank proforma used for forging Aadhaar cards were also recovered during the raids, it said on Tuesday.
The action came on the eve of polling for 43 assembly seats in Jharkhand on Wednesday. The remaining 38 seats of the state will vote on November 20.
During the poll campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders accused the state government of aiding such infiltration, leading to the altering of the demographic landscape of the tribal-dominated areas of Santhal Pargana and Kolhan regions.
Addressing an election rally in Deoghar last week, Modi said infiltration was a major concern in Jharkhand and the tribal population in Santhal Pargana had been reduced to half.
The JMM-led coalition government in Jharkhand allowed infiltrators to become permanent citizens, Modi alleged.
The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) had slammed the BJP-led Centre, alleging that the ED’s action was an attempt to “help the saffron camp establish its Bangladeshi infiltration narrative”.
The Congress, an ally of the JMM, also made a similar allegation, saying the raids were not for Bangladeshi infiltrators but a last attempt to save the BJP’s political ground in the state.
The searches came after the ED filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in September to probe an instance of alleged infiltration and trafficking of some Bangladeshi women into Jharkhand, leading to the generation of alleged slush funds.
The ECIR (enforcement case information report) filed by the central agency stems from a Jharkhand Police FIR filed at Bariatu police station in Ranchi in June.
The police FIR was filed on the complaint of a Bangladeshi woman who allegedly infiltrated into the country from the Bangladesh border with the help of touts to find work. She named around six women as accused who were arrested following a raid at a local resort.
The woman who filed the complaint escaped from a similar guest house and reached the police station. Police also recovered a “fake” Aadhaar card from one of these women.
The FIR was registered under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) like 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intention).
It also invoked Section 12 of the Passport Act (knowingly furnishing any false information or suppressing any material information with a view to obtaining a passport or travel document) and Section 14A of the Foreigners Act (penalty for entry in restricted area) against the accused.
The FIR quoted the women complainant as saying that they were trafficked into India from Bangladesh allegedly for prostitution on the pretext of getting them jobs in beauty salons.
Earlier, ED sources said the agency would investigate the “entire gamut” of infiltration from across the eastern borders, including Bangladesh, into Jharkhand including the tribal districts of Santhal Pargana and Kolhan.
