Five Afghan nationals held in Katihar

PATNA: Five foreign nationals, purportedly hailing from Afghanistan, have been arrested from Katihar on charges of staying in India for over five years based on forged citizenship documents, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.
The foreigners, stated to be residents of Paktika province in Afghanistan, were booked for forgery and under the provisions of the Money Laundering Act among others. A cache of documents was seized from their rented accommodation in the heart of the town.
Katihar SP Vikas Kumar said one Ghulam visited the town police station on Monday for some work.During interaction with the police officials, he divulged that he originally belonged to Afghanistan but was staying in Katihar for business purposes.
On Tuesday, a police team searched the Choudhari Tola rented house of Ghulam where four others were staying. “They were brought to the police station for interrogation. They showed their documents like Aadhar card, PAN card, bank passbook etc to prove their Indian citizenship,” the SP said.
"During verification, the documents turned out to be fake. Surprisingly, they had obtained birth certificates from the local municipality, driving license from DTO office, PAN card, ATM card, and bank passbooks based on ‘fake’ documents," he added.
The raiding team also recovered Rs 5.2 lakh in cash from their possession. The investigating officers also detected transactions of money from abroad, which raised suspicion over their activities. The owner of the house Aftab, however, managed to escape.
The SP said the arrested foreigners were found to be involved in money lending during the investigation. Katihar deputy SP Amar Kant Jha said an FIR was lodged against seven people, including six foreign nationals, with the town police station. Five of them were arrested and produced in court, which remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.
Earlier this month the district headquarters town in Seemanchal region hogged the limelight when posters were pasted at the district collectorate and other places purportedly of the Popular Front of India (PFI) recalling demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
One person was arrested after an FIR was lodged. The police had seized the posters having pictures of the demolished shrine. “The district is considered to be very sensitive from the security point of view,” a senior police officer posted at the police headquarters said.