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Pune: Police have arrested 21 Bangladeshi nationals from Ranjangaon area in Pune district after they were found residing illegally in the country, a top official said on Tuesday.
Fifteen men, four women and two persons from the third gender were part of the group of Bangladeshis, most of whom worked as labourers at construction sites in Karegaon area of Ranjangaon MIDC, located more than 50 km away from Pune city, he said.
"Officials of the Anti-Terrorism Cell of the Pune rural police, assistant police inspector Prakash Pawar and assistant sub-inspector Vishal Gavhane, during their patrolling in the MIDC area, received inputs that some Bangladeshi nationals were staying illegally in Karegaon," he said.
"Our preliminary probe indicated that these individuals had been staying in India for varying period - some of them from the last six months and some others from 10 years," Deshmukh said.
Many accused worked as labourers at the construction sites or as security guards, he said.
"From one of the accused, we recovered a voter identity card and in other cases, documents like UIDAI card and PAN card were recovered," he said.
According to Deshmukh, these Bangladeshi nationals entered India via sea as well as land routes.
Police are probing whether there is an organised racket through which these people are being brought into India illegally, he said.
Senior police official Mahadev Waghmode of the Ranjangaon MIDC police station said an offence has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Passports Act and the Foreigners Act.