Tirupur: People from Bangladesh are not only migrating to the dollar city illegally to make a living, but they are also enjoying access to Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards, ration cards and even Indian passports.Among the 22 Bangladeshi illegal immigrants arrested in the past two months in the city, one was in possession of an Indian passport, while two others had applied for one. Another immigrant had managed to get a ration card issued by the Tamil Nadu government.“All the 22 immigrants possessed Aadhaar cards and other identity proofs like ration cards and voter identity cards. Mohammed Babul Hossen of Khulna division in Bangladesh, who ran a grocery shop at Sevanthampalayam, had even filed his income tax return. They wanted to create records, so that they could become Indian citizens,” a higher police officer, who didn’t want to be named, told TOI.The officer said all the arrested people had crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border illegally in search of jobs.“A few weeks ago, two men claiming to be natives of Tirupur came to us regarding the passport verification process. We found their addresses were false and they were from Bangladesh. After their arrest, 12 other illegal immigrants were held. Earlier in in October first week, we had arrested eight illegal immigrants,” the officer said.He said they had come to work in the city due to lack of job opportunities and low wages in their country. “Babul Hossen acted as a broker and helped people who crossed the border to reach Tirupur. They had spent a lot of money to enter India illegally and obtain fake documents. But they did not realize that if they had entered India with valid passport, they could have saved money,” he said.Pointing out that they should have entered the country legally, he said it was high time that the Bangladesh embassy informed its government to take steps to prevent such illegal immigration.Investigations also found that all the immigrants had obtained Aadhaar cards from Ramshisah Verma and Ravishankar Singh, from Bihar, who were arrested earlier this year.

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