BENGALURU: The city police on Friday took 59 Bangladesh nationals, who were living here illegally, to Howrah in West Bengal. With the help of Railway officials, the city police managed to get the special bogie charges of Rs 5 lakh waived.
This amount was in addition to ticket reservation charges. A team of 28 police personnel, including women, are escorting the Bangladeshis.On Friday, police booked a private bus to Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh from where they boarded an express train to Howrah. The train departed from Puttaparthi on Friday afternoon and will reach Howrah on Saturday evening, a senior officer said.
The city police have, however, raised concerns about security after reaching West Bengal.A senior officer said, “We have communicated with the Border Security Force (BSF) and Intelligence Bureau in West Bengal to provide security right from the railway station till the migrants reach the border, where they will be handed over to the Border Security Force. However, we have not got a proper response from BSF. We are keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that they will come to the railway station and provide security. We don’t want anybody to escape at the crowded Howrah station. If they escape, all our efforts will go waste.”
The police spent at least
Rs 2 lakh when the Bangladeshi nationals were in police custody. They are now spending around Rs 1.5 lakh to transport them through train, which includes food expenses. In total, the police has spent Rs 4 lakh so far.
The police team has four sub-inspectors from Ramamurthy Nagar, three from Marathalli and a woman police sub-inspector. The rest are assistant sub-inspector, head constables and constables.
On October 26, 60 Bangladeshis were arrested from Ramamurthy Nagar and Marathalli jurisdiction. Of them, 59 were found to be staying in the city illegally.
They entered India with the help of some officials and contractors. They were working in factories, and as rag pickers and scrap dealers.Since there are no separate funds for deportation and shelters, the police had to spend for this case from their investigation funds.