Tripura Court jails three Bangladeshi nationals for Passport violations; three more arrested in Kamalpur

A Tripura court has convicted three Bangladeshi nationals for violating the Indian Passport Act and sentenced them to one year of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 each. In a separate incident, three more Bangladeshi nationals were arrested by Kamalpur police in Dhalai district on Thursday for illegally entering Indian territory.

According to official sources, the convicted individuals have been identified as Mohammad Raihan Miah, Nuru Alam Miah, both residents of Hafu Banga, and Mohammad Mohi Uddin of Kathal Kandi in Bangladesh. The court further ordered that failure to pay the fine would result in an additional six months of simple imprisonment.

The three were arrested in the last week of October for infiltrating into Indian territory without valid documents. They were booked under the Indian Passport Act, the IPP Act, and relevant sections of the BNS at the Dharmanagar police station in North Tripura district, the Tripura Police said in an official press statement.

Following investigation, Sub-Inspector Biswajit Das of Dharmanagar police station submitted the chargesheet against the accused on November 22.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, villagers of Lambucherra under Kamalpur subdivision of Dhalai district detained three Bangladeshi nationals, including a woman, on Wednesday after they allegedly entered India without valid documents. The villagers handed them over to the police, who produced them before a local court on Thursday. The court subsequently remanded them to nine days of judicial custody.

Last week, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha said that infiltration into India from Bangladesh through the Tripura border has decreased, and exfiltration from the Indian side has begun.

 “Now, there is almost no infiltration in the state. In the past, infiltration was a major issue. Now, most of the illegal immigrants of Bangladesh who have been hiding in the country have started fleeing. Many of them were arrested while they tried to flee,” CM Dr Saha said.

He added that the Border Security Force (BSF), after consultation with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), is sending infiltrators back to their country as per legal procedures.

The state shares an 856-kilometre-long border with Bangladesh, some patches of which are yet to be fenced.

BSF sources said that a total of 628 Bangladeshi nationals, 57 Rohingyas and 280 Indian nationals were detained for infiltration in the past one year.