Representative image for an arrest.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: The police have arrested the man who allegedly helped the recently detained Pakistani families settle in Bengaluru, a well-placed police source told DH on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Jigani Police picked up 55-year-old Parvez Ahmed, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, from Mumbai. Investigators are probing his past.
A preliminary investigation revealed that Parvez helped at least five Pakistani families settle in India under Hindu names, including the two families arrested in Bengaluru last week. Police suspect Parvez’s intervention in helping the other families settle in Mumbai and Delhi.
On September 29, the police had held a four-member Pakistani family living under Hindu names for the last six years on the southern outskirts of Bengaluru. Investigations led the police team to a three-member family, including a 13-year-old girl, residing in north Bengaluru.
Both the families were found to have links with the Mehdi Foundation International (MFI), a group that promotes “the Goharian Philosophy of Divine Love”. The police have learnt that Parvez helped them cross over to India from Bangladesh, initially, and settle in Delhi. Subsequently, they moved to Bengaluru.
The well-placed police source explained that Parvez’s MFI connections date back to 2007.
In 2007, 63 people linked with the foundation arrived in India from Pakistan and staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar, burning their Pakistani passports.
One among them was a woman who later married Parvez. Eventually, all the protesters found refuge in European countries. But Parvez’s wife stayed back in India.
The officer told DH that Parvez’s wife stays in Delhi, and every week, appears at the Delhi Special Branch and signs the register to mark her presence, an arrangement in place since her marriage. She cannot be arrested as her stay in India is legal, the officer said.
Amjad Gohar, president of MFI, confirmed to DH that Parvez’s wife was one of the 63 people who arrived from Pakistan, and that she stays in Delhi. As her case was filed in Delhi, she reports to the Delhi Special Branch, every week.
Police sources told DH that their focus is to ascertain the backgrounds of the arrested families who were living in India illegally and initiate their deportation if they don’t have any history of crime.
Parvez’s arrest has been made as part of the same case, and no separate FIR has been filed. Police are yet to decide on their further course of action.
‘More to surrender’
Gohar told DH that more people associated with the foundation are residing in India, and all of them have been directed to surrender before the respective state high courts.
“We didn’t know that MFI members were living in India illegally. We have communicated to these members, through Parvez, to surrender,” he said.