Bangladesh

Building owners, who rent their houses to illegal immigrants without checking their identity proof, would henceforth be booked. The city police commissioner made this announcement after the arrests of 60 Bangladeshi nationals, including women, for illegally staying in different parts of the city.The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths, who are on the lookout for overstaying foreign nationals in the city suspected to be involved in terror and illegal activities, arrested the 60 Bangladeshi nationals in a drive conducted since Friday night.The arrests have been made in Marathahalli, Ramamurthy Nagar, KR Puram, HAL and other places. Cases against all the arrested are booked under The Foreigners Act. The CCB sleuths are in the process of checking their passports and other documents. The arrested are suspected to have been illegally staying in the city for the last few years and could have obtained Aadhaar card and other government facilities.Most of the arrested are daily wage labourers. They have managed to get the government facilities through local help. Police are checking the purpose of visit to the country, if they have managed to cross the border and if they are over staying after their visas have lapsed.“Of the arrested, 29 are men, 22 women and nine girls. All the arrested will be deported to. There is information about some foreign nationals who are over staying in KR Puram, Bagalur and other areas. Efforts are being made to arrest them. The passport and visa documents of all foreigners staying in the city are being checked,” said an officer on part of investigations.Following the arrests, city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao told media that building owners have to be extremely careful before renting out their premises. “ Identity proofs of the tenants have to be checked before renting out the premises, failing which cases against building owners will be booked. Investigations are being carried to ascertain who helped the illegal immigrants to come to the city,” he added.It may be recalled that the police had recently arrested seven African nationals for overstaying in the country. These seven had come to the city on student and tourist visas.