Meghalaya Police bust 'infiltration racket' with arrest of 3 from Mumbai

The Meghalaya Police on Sunday claimed to have busted a criminal network facilitating illegal entry into the country and identity forgery, with the arrest of three suspected Bangladesh nationals from Mumbai.

The three accused, including a woman, were nabbed from Koparkhairane, Ulwe and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg in South Mumbai, after a week-long hunt by police personnel of Meghalaya and Maharashtra, a senior officer said.

He said police recovered forged documents, incriminating digital evidence and tools used for fabricating IDs.

The accused were brought to Meghalaya on transit remand for further investigation, Ri-Bhoi District SSP Vivekanand Singh Rathore told PTI.

The trio allegedly facilitated the illegal entry of at least 24 Bangladesh nationals, which include 12 women and three children in the recent past, he said.

They used to arrange forge documents using fake address proofs and enlisting middlemen to move illegal immigrants through border towns to metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and beyond, he said.

The criminal racket also exploited fake identities to open bank accounts in the illegal immigrant's names, the officer said.

These accounts were then allegedly used for loan fraud and cybercrimes.

This reflects a well-oiled network of illegal migration, document forgery, and financial crime with serious implications for national security. With India's porous and difficult-to-monitor borders with Bangladesh especially in states like Meghalaya and increasing internal political instability in Bangladesh, the threat posed by such infiltrations has grown significantly, Rathore said.

It's a call for heightened vigilance by intelligence agencies and law enforcement across states, he added.