Updated on: Aug 08, 2025 11:11 pm IST
The man had entered the country on a Bangladeshi passport that identified him as Bibhas Roy, a resident of Chittagong, and got himself an Indian passport
KOLKATA: A Bangladeshi national was arrested at the Kolkata international airport on Friday when immigration officials found that he was headed to Dubai on an Indian passport, police officials probing the case said.
The man had entered the country on a Bangladeshi passport that identified him as Bibhas Roy, a resident of Chittagong. The man continued to stay in India illegally after his visa expired and applied for an Indian passport by assuming the name Soumik Barua,” a police official said, requesting anonymity.
Police stated that the man was travelling to Dubai to catch a connecting flight to Germany. But officials stopped him for questioning at the immigration checkpoint due to suspicions. In his bag, officials found his expired Bangladeshi passport, which confirmed his nationality.
The immigration department informed the airport police that arrested the suspect.
Friday’s arrest comes months after the state police and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) started a probe into a passport racket that allegedly helped hundreds of Bangladeshi nationals procure Indian citizenship documents and travel abroad.
Azad Mullick alias Ahmed Hussain Azad, the suspected kingpin of the racket, was arrested on April 15 from Birati in the North 24 Parganas district. He was initially identified as a Bangladeshi national.
He was charged with entering India in 2019 and allegedly procuring Indian identity documents, such as Aadhaar card and a driving licence, not only for himself but for at least 200 Bangladeshis in exchange for money. These documents were used to procure Indian passports, and many of those Bangladeshis went abroad, the probe indicated.
In May, while seeking extension of Azad’s police custody for further interrogation, ED told Kolkata’s city sessions court that he could be a Pakistani spy or a terrorist.
ED told the court that documents running into 20,000 pages and suspicious WhatsApp chats with Pakistani citizens were found on the two mobile phones seized from Azad after his arrest.
