The Thriving Racket That Provides Fake And Forged Documents To Bangladeshi And Rohingya Infiltrators

Ongoing investigations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into a money laundering scam linked to the production of fake and forged documents that are provided to Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators in Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand have revealed only the tip of a dangerous iceberg. 

The ED raided 17 places across Bengal and Jharkhand Tuesday (12 November) and recovered scores of fake Aadhaar cards and Indian passports, as well as machines and gadgets used to forge these documents. 

A large amount of cash, jewellery, illegal arms, property documents, and blank proformas used to make fake Aadhaar cards were also seized. 

ED sources told Swarajya they suspect that the racketeers have made thousands of fake Aadhaar cards and passports until now. 

Preliminary interrogation of three persons arrested for their involvement in the racket has revealed that the operation is well organised and linked to similar rackets in Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand that provide fake Indian citizenship documents to Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas who infiltrate through the Indo-Bangladesh border into Bengal. 

The rackets yield huge sums of money. They are also linked to human trafficking networks that facilitate the illegal entry of Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas into India.

How the Racket was Exposed

On 3 June this year, a 21-year-old girl escaped from the clutches of criminals who had trafficked her from Bangladesh and sought help from the police in Jharkhand’s capital, Ranchi.

The girl, along with five other Muslim girls from Bangladesh, were being sold to brothel owners there. 

Ranchi police registered a complaint against the traffickers. Police investigations revealed that many other Bangladeshi Muslim girls had also been trafficked and sold to brothels in other parts of the country. 

Because huge sums of money — proceeds from the racket — were being laundered, the ED started conducting a parallel probe. 

ED investigations revealed that not only was the racket widespread, it was not limited to trafficking girls.

“Our officers found that many highly organised rackets, all of them linked to each other, facilitate the entry of tens of thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas into India every year. The rackets that provide fake and forged Indian citizenship documents are part of the larger human trafficking racket,” a senior ED officer told Swarajya. 

How It Works

Agents in Bangladesh identify and liaise with Muslim citizens of that country as well as Rohingya refugees who wish to enter India illegally. 

The infiltrators fall into different categories depending on their motives. The lowest category are the poor who want to immigrate for economic reasons, and the top end are criminals who want to escape the law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh. 

The poor who want to immigrate in search of a better livelihood are usually charged anything between 10,000 to 15,000 Bangladeshi Taka (between Rs 7,000 and 10,000) per head just for entering India. 

Agents in Bangladesh coordinate with their counterparts in Bengal to facilitate this entry. Vulnerable spots along the international border, especially the riverine stretches or areas where vigil is generally lax or portions of the border fence that can be breached easily, are identified. 

For criminals escaping the law in Bangladesh, the cost of entering India is higher and can go up to a couple of lakhs of Bangladeshi Taka. Young men who want to enter India just to earn a livelihood and then return to Bangladesh after a few years are charged anywhere between 50,000 and 80,000 Bangladeshi Taka.

Depending on their desperation (to enter India) and the level of vigil by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the international border, these amounts can go up further.

Once the immigrants enter India, they have to shell out more to get safe refuge, usually in houses belonging to Muslims (who are also illegal migrants or their descendants) on this side of the border. 

Agents on this side of the border take large sums of money from the infiltrators not just to arrange their stays for short periods, varying from a few days to a couple of weeks, at such safe houses but also to pay off local politicians and policemen.

It is during the stay of the fresh infiltrators at these ‘safe houses’ that the subsidiary racket of making fake Indian citizenship documents kicks in. 

The illegal infiltrators are generally charged Rs 20,000 for an Aadhaar card and a minimum of Rs 40,000 for a passport. ‘Group discounts’ of about 20 per cent are offered for five or more persons.

Once these documents are handed over to the illegal infiltrators, they travel to other parts of Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bihar and stay in localities and hamlets populated by illegal Bangladeshi Muslims or Rohingya immigrants who had arrived before.

“The new immigrants stay for relatively longer periods, varying from six months to a year, in localities in hamlets populated by the earlier immigrants. Not only do they get local employment as labourers and in menial jobs, the new immigrants also receive an orientation of the ‘Indian way of life’ to avoid detection and arousing suspicion about their nationality,” a senior officer of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), who has been probing the illegal immigration racket, told Swarajya. 

After their stays in such localities and hamlets, the Bangladeshi Muslim and Rohingya immigrants then migrate to other parts of the country in search of work. 

Proceeds From The Racket

If a ballpark figure of 1 lakh illegal immigrants entering India every year is considered — and this is a very conservative estimate — the total earnings from only forging Indian citizenship documents comes up to Rs 3,000 crore. 

The proceeds from facilitating the illegal entry of 1 lakh immigrants a year comes up to another Rs 1,000 crore.

Add to this other amounts charged from the infiltrators — for their stay in safe houses immediately after entering India and for their eventual transportation to and stays in other places — and the total amount increases to over Rs 5,000 crore. 

“These amounts are just for ordinary infiltrators. Much more money is made from trafficking of girls from Bangladesh for prostitution. For each girl who is trafficked, the traffickers, touts, and forgers make about Rs 10 lakh. A trafficked girl can be sold for anything between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, if not more.

"Our estimate is that at least a couple of hundred girls from Bangladesh are trafficked every year. One can imagine the amount of money that is made by the traffickers, touts, and forgers from this,” the IB officer added.

Central intelligence and security agencies suspect that the kingpins of this trafficking racket have links with Islamic radicals in Bangladesh as well as in India. These fundamentalists have a vested interest in encouraging trafficking to achieve their objective of bringing about a demographic change in eastern India. 

And that is why this human trafficking racket, which not only facilitates the illegal entry of Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas into India but also provides them with fake Indian citizenship documents, represents one of the gravest threats to India’s national security.