Pramesh S jain.Yogesh K Porwar
A Major crackdown as Surprise checks conducted by Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials on 65 houses on Thursday in the area as, Banaswadi,Hennur,KG Halli,Govindapura, Ramamurthynagar,DJ Halli, Yelahanka and other areas.
Senior officer told media persons,A team consisting of six assistant commissioners of police (ACPs),20 police inspectors (PIs),100 head constables and police constables conducted the search from the early hours till afternoon.
During the raid four were arrested two cases were booked under the NDPS Act after the CCB officials recovered 90 ecstasy pills and 25 grams of marijuana from two Nigerian nationals.Twenty have been arrested under the Foreigners Act,
It was found that most of the foreign nationals among the 38 are from African countries.A few among them don’t have passports and visa,while a few others foreign nationals’ visa has got expired,officials said,adding that they have come to India on tourist,business and student visas.
The police are questioning all 38 persons about their purpose of stay,and if they have applied for renewal of visa and their present activities in the city will be verified and If they fail to produce required documents they will be arrested under Foreigners Act.
The search was conducted because the accused persons caught in drug peddling cases did not produce the valid documents for their stay in Bengaluru.
However,many of the foreigners told the police on thursday that Panic gripped among the African nationals during the police raid and search operations.
Many of them said that they were with expired travel document is not deliberately or with malicious intentions,but due to the pandemic, because of which they could not update situation as the reason for not updating their travel documents.
Some of them said that they could not go back as the flights have been cancelled while others cited higher air fares.
The police could have issued us a notice to question us.Carrying out such search operations publicly puts us in bad light,some of the foreigners said African members added.
Cases registered so far in morning raids,38 people found without valid documents.2 NDPS cases,4 accused drug peddlers arrested and 4 Foreigners act cases,20 accused booked for over staying without any valid documents he added.
Commissioner of police Kamal Pant said by tweeting,A special drive was conducted this morning against overstaying foreign nationals by the @CCBangalore.
Over 60 houses were checked and 38 foreigners were found to be staying without a valid passport & visa.The team also found narcotic substances (90 ecstacy pills & cannabis) during the searches.
A case has been registered under the Foreigners Act and NDPS Act. Further investigation is underway he tweeted.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Joint CP Crime,Sandeep Patil,DCP Crime-1 KP Ravikumar,Crime-2 BS Angadi,and his team as ACPs,PIs,and around 100 head constable and constables who were part of this massive crackdown on Foreigners who are staying illegally and are involved in illegal activities and for the exemplary work done by them a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.
