From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, Jan 2: Amid the raging controversy over illegal Bangladeshi immigrants making it to the voters’ list of Delhi, the Delhi police launched a crackdown on rackets involved in the trafficking of Bangladeshi women to India through Meghalaya and Assam for employment, including flesh trade.
The Delhi election office reported nearly 4.80 lakh new voters and deletion of 82,000 voters. Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, who is an appointee of the Home Ministry, had ordered a through revision of the voters’ list of the Union Territory before the upcoming polls.
The BJP alleged ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is attempting to illegally include Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants in the voter lists to secure a vote bank. The AAP, on the other hand, accused the BJP of orchestrating the mass removal of names of voters from the electoral rolls ahead of the polls.
The Delhi Police said it busted a human trafficking racket while verifying the credentials of alleged Bangladeshis in connection with a murder case in the national capital.
On Saturday evening, the authorities arrested one Animul Islam, a key figure in the trafficking ring. He is a resident of Krishnai in Assam’s Goalpara district and he allegedly used his vehicle to transport women from across the Meghalaya-Assam border.
The investigation revealed that four Bangladeshi women, connected with the murder case, were victims of human trafficking. The police claim the deceased and an accomplice, Anis, were actively involved in supplying Bangladeshi women to customers in Delhi.
Police said they have also discovered “donkey routes” via Meghalaya and Assam in the border states that the foreign nationals used.
The immigrants, guided by the Bangladeshi handlers, crossed the jungle border between Durgapur in Bangladesh and Baghmara in Meghalaya on foot.
“Indian handlers then transported them to Krishnai and New Bongaigaon railway stations in Assam before they continued their journey to metropolitan cities like Delhi and Kolkata,” police said.
In another case, Naim Khan (22) and his mother, who was arrested last month near Moti Bagh after failing to provide identification documents, admitted to being an illegal Bangladeshi migrant. They confessed that they entered India illegally in 2005 and have been living in Delhi since, working as a domestic help and a private worker, respectively.
“The mother-son duo has been deported to Bangladesh through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest Delhi) Surendra Choudhary.
Police are investigating how they managed to stay undetected for nearly two decades and secured jobs and accommodation.
In another case, Mohammad Akhtar Sheikh, a construction worker in his late 30s, was arrested in Sarojini Nagar on December 28 for possession of narcotic substances, officers aware of the case said. While Nazma and Naim were deported, Sheikh was sent to Tihar Jail due to his involvement in a criminal case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Between December 10 and December 28, multiple teams of the city police checked documents of 16,645 people living in unauthorised colonies, slums, vacant government-owned lands, and footpaths across Delhi to identify and nab illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
While documents of 15,748 persons were found genuine during the verification drives, a total of 46 Bangladeshis were found to be staying illegally in India, either as illegal immigrants or those who were overstaying despite their visas having expired.
Verification of the documents of the remaining 851 suspicious persons is still under process as they could not produce authentic papers proving their Indian citizenship, said a senior Delhi Police officer. The drive is part of a two-month-long crackdown.
Incidentally, the Northeast accounts for substantial trafficking cases, largely due to conflict, climate-induced displacements and poor economic conditions. According to 2018 reports, an estimated 50,000 Bangladeshi women and children are trafficked into India each year, with many being forced into urban brothels.