Bangladeshi national arrested in Thane for using fake Indian documents

Eight women were arrested in separate cases of staying illegally in India using fake documents, according to media reports. Seven of these women were arrested from Navi Mumbai while one was arrested from Ambernath City in Thane.

Acting on a tip, a team from the NRI police station raided a residential premises at Karave village in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday evening and apprehended the women staying in two rooms there, reported PTI. The accused women, who were working as domestic help, had snuck into India illegally and were living in the village without valid documents.

In a separate case, a woman was arrested by the Hill Line Police from Ambernath after a tip suggested that she was living there with bogus documents. The accused was identified as Riya Arvind Barde, and she was also allegedly involved in a forgery and cheating case.

According to the police reports, over a year ago, they received a complaint and subsequently questioned Riya Barde about her credentials to verify her status as an Indian citizen.

Investigation revealed the accused conspired to obtain a school transfer certificate from Bangladesh for one of her accomplices and a birth certificate from North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. Using these documents, they secured education credentials and passports for the other accused, the police said.

Riya Barde's documents were eventually sent for verification where it came to light that her birth certificate, school leaving certificate, and passport had three different places of birth listed North 24 Parganas, Hooghly (both in West Bengal) and Achalpur in Maharashtra's Amravati district.

A resident from Amravati allegedly forged the documents for Riya and three of her associates to help her stay in India illegally. A search is currently underway for four other accused in the case.