SHILLONG: East Jaintia Hills police have launched a detailed investigation to unearth any larger design behind the sudden illegal immigration of Nigerians to the country.
The district police have in the last four days arrested as many as 14 foreign nationals from different parts of the district. Of them, 12 were detected with Nigerian passports, but without valid Indian visas. Of the remaining two, one hailed from Ivory Coast while the other had no passport.
East Jaintia Hills SP Vivekananda Singh said that the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs have been intimated about the arrests.
He said all the arrested persons had travelled from Nigeria to Dhaka by air on different dates. They were then picked up from the Bangladesh capital by some people in batches and taken by cars to an unknown place near the Indo-Bangladesh border.
They then crossed the border in Tripura on foot and were picked up by some people before travelling by cars to Silchar from where they boarded buses to Guwahati.
During interrogation, one of the arrested, Obey Sunny, admitted that he has a criminal case pending against him in Goa for overstaying in India and his passport has been impounded.
Others have claimed that they are footballers and have come to India illegally through Bangladesh to play football in Indian clubs and for textile business. The police are verifying the claims.
Police also said that if anyone has information about the people who facilitated their illegal entry from Bangladesh to India can get in touch with police and their identities will be kept secret.
