Pune: Three Bangladeshi nationals staying in Pune illegally for nearly two years have been detained jointly by the city police’s special branch and the military intelligence unit of Army’s Southern Command. The detainees, Sonia Akhtar, Motia Gaju and Sonia Moti Pan, were reportedly construction workers.Security agencies are probing how they entered India without valid travel documents, how they obtained Indian identity documents, and whether they had links to any illegal activities like human trafficking. No such involvement has been established so far, officials said. “What is crucial for us is to establish their contacts in the city and how they managed to create their documents here,” a senior police officer said.The special branch deputy commissioner of police Prashant Amrutkar told TOI, “We are in the process of deporting them to Bangladesh. The action was taken after getting specific inputs from the military intelligence unit, which had established their illegal stay.”Officials said the latest detention has once again highlighted concerns over the verification of migrant workers employed at construction sites and other informal-sector workplaces.Security agencies are examining whether contractors and site supervisors properly verified workers’ identities and nationality before hiring them, and whether the three had previously stayed elsewhere in India.“This is not the first time that the police and security agencies have detained Bangladeshi nationals in the city. However, in earlier cases, their links and the mechanism through which they entered India illegally could not be conclusively established,” an official said.A senior security official said, “These people remain low-profile and mainly work at construction sites where supervisors do not check their documents properly. This particular aspect needs to be strengthened because it has security implications,” the official said.Their detention and deportation are therefore being treated as part of a wider effort to identify and prevent illegal immigration networks, officials said.Officials pointed out that deportation alone may not address the larger issue if organised networks facilitating illegal entry and settlement remain unidentified. There have also been instances, according to security officials, of deported foreign nationals subsequently attempting to re-enter India and settling in different cities.
