17 Bangladeshi nationals held in Tamil Nadu and Kerala

Seventeen Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested in India. The police arrested them during separate operations in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Among them, 15 individuals were arrested in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu. This information was reported by Indian news outlets The Hindu and The New Indian Express on Wednesday (January 29).

According to the reports, the 15 Bangladeshis were arrested on Tuesday in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, on charges of staying illegally with forged documents. They had come to Tiruppur to work in a hosiery unit.

Ten of them were arrested in the Nallur Kasipalayam-Kanchinagar area, while the remaining individuals were arrested from the Bhavipalayam area of the Thirumuruganpundi police station. According to police sources, 83 Bangladeshi nationals, including one woman, have been arrested this month so far for staying illegally under the 1946 Foreigners Act.

Meanwhile, in Kerala, two Bangladeshis were arrested by the police for staying illegally. On Tuesday, the two Bangladeshi nationals were arrested in the Vennala area of Kochi city. The arrested individuals are Mohammad Baljith (31) and Mohammad Babu (36), both of whom are residents of the Khulna district of Bangladesh.

The police stated that both of them had been working as scrap collectors in Vennala and Palarivattom for the past few years. After receiving a tip-off, the police went to their rented house for verification.

Initially, both men introduced themselves as Indian citizens and presented Aadhaar cards. Baljith’s Aadhaar card had an address in Bengaluru, while Babu's had an address in New Delhi.

However, upon suspicion, the police checked their mobile phones and discovered that their Facebook accounts were created using Bangladeshi phone numbers. Additionally, several phone calls and WhatsApp messages had been made to other Bangladeshi numbers at different times.