2 held for forging documents to get Indian IDs for Bangladeshi immigrants

Indian Express

14-05-2025

Two persons were on Wednesday arrested for allegedly forging character certificates that bore signatures of corporators of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to help illegal Bangladeshi immigrants get Indian IDs, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) said.
The arrested accused have been identified as Rana Sarkar and Shoaib Qureshi. A third accused has been identified as Robiul Islam.
All three were booked under BNS Sections 336(2) (forgery), 337 (forgery of public documents), 338 (forgery of valuable documents), 340(2) (forged documents used as genuine), as well as under the Passport Act Sections 12(1)(b) and 12(2). They were also booked under Sections 14(a)(b) and 14(c) of The Foreigners Act.
The ATS had, during several of its raids, recovered 22 character certificates they believe were duplicated and forged, and then produced to obtain IDs for illegal immigrants. While 15 of these certificates bore the signature of Councillor Gita Solanki, four were under the letterhead of Corporator Shehzad Khan Pathan and two were signed by former councillor Kamruddin Pathan.
Speaking on the modus operandi, an ATS officer said, 'They used to produce certificates signed by local municipal councillors. They would then use a whitener to hide the name of the person to whom it was actually issued, and then get multiple colour print outs of the same.'
The officer added, 'Then, they would put the names of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh on these certificates, put their photos, and use it to make IDs for them. Then, on the basis of these documents, they would apply for passports.'
On Wednesday, the ATS said it had found proof that a forgery business was being run in Ahmedabad's Narol area. A statement from the ATS said, 'Police Inspector V N Vaghela received information that an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, named Rana Sarkar alias Mohammad Didaarul Alam, currently residing in Narol, was running a shop called 'VIP Mobile and Money Transfer'.' The ATS alleged that Sarkar had also obtained an Indian passport for himself by producing forged documents.
The ATS team on Monday searched the premises of Sarkar's shop and seized several Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and voter IDs. They also seized Sarkar's National ID card issued by the People's Republic of Bangladesh. It was further alleged that Islam had brought 13-14 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Qureshi had forged documents for their IDs. Sarkar then used those to apply for their passports.
At Qureshi's 'Al Qureshi Enterprise', the ATS found 22 copies of fake certificates, and 300 copies of these certificates on his computer. They also found that the three accused had already obtained passports for 17 illegal immigrants while applications for 9 others were under process.
Sarkar is originally a resident of Kishoreganj in Dhaka, who illegally crossed the border and came to India in 2012. He lived in Siliguri and Howrah in West Bengal, in parts of Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru in Karnataka, before reaching Ahmedabad in Gujarat. He got his own Indian passport in 2017 and started his business in 2018. Qureshi, an Indian national, is a resident of Navalgadh in Rajasthan and he started his business in 2015. The ATS is trying to ascertain the nationality of Islam, who is currently in South Korea.
The ATS said that the accused might also have used forged documents for more nefarious purposes such as terrorism, espionage and tax evasion which have a direct impact on the national security.
Ever since the Gujarat Police's crackdown on illegal immigrants from Bangladesh beginning at 3 am on April 26, resulting in detention of a total of 6,500 suspects across the state, including hundreds of Indians who were later allowed to return home, the police have been investigating how many had in their possession original Indian IDs. Wednesday's arrests come two-and-a-half weeks later.
DCP (Crime) Ajit Rajian had earlier told The Indian Express that Indian documents had been found and seized from several people, confirmed as illegal immigrants, and that the documentation of all continued to remain under scrutiny, with police personnel conducting site visits to various states and coordinating with central agencies to sort through documentation that had been generated based on forged proofs.
When contacted, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) spokesperson Manish Doshi told this paper, 'ATS has named two of the Congress councillors Gita Solanki and Shehzad Khan Pathan along with former councillor Kamruddin Pathan. Instead of blaming others, the government should take responsibility.'