Police have arrested Rubel Jonu Shaikh, president of the north Mumbai minority cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for living illegally in the country for years. According to the police, 24-year old Shaikh is allegedly a Bangladeshi immigrant living in Malad illegally for around ten years.
Shaikh was arrested by Malvani Police in a crackdown on illegal immigrants. He was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Passport (Entry into India) Act and Foreigners Act. The investigations conducted by the police revealed that he is in fact a Bangladeshi national who has been living in Mumbai illegally since 2011. Police also allege that the accused had prepared fake PAN cards and Aadhaar cards with the help of forged documents.
Shaikh is the chairman of minority cell of the party’s north Mumbai youth wing, according to the police report.
According to reports, Rubel Jonu Sheikh’s documents showed that he was a resident of Malapota gram panchayat in West Bengal’s 24 North Parganas district. His school’s name was shown as Bolganda Adarsh High School in West Bengal’s Nadia district.
However, when a police team went to Malapota gram panchayat and inquired about him, the panchayat did not have records of any resident named Rubel Jonu Sheikh.
When authorities tried to verify the documents at the Nadia district collector’s office, it was found that the school-leaving certificate held by Rubel Jonu Sheikh was issued in someone else’s name. The investigation has also found that the school mentioned in his documents does not exist in Nadia.
The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have demanded a probe after the arrest.
NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase wrote a letter to Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and sought an investigation into Sheikh’s connection with Bangladesh. He also hit out at the BJP and asked how the party could appoint Sheikh as an office-bearer without verifying his identity.
Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, “On one hand, the BJP is bringing Citizenship Amendment Act for the action against illegal residents, on the other, its own office-bearers are proved to be Bangladeshis. The party should clarify if they have made some special provision in the Act for their own people. Is this some type of jihad in the party?”
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