Delhi Police have busted a network involved in illegally settling Bangladeshi migrants in the city. Eighteen Bangladeshi nationals, including four under scrutiny, and their eight Indian accomplices were arrested for facilitating illegal immigration, police said on Saturday.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ankit Chauhan, migrants entering India used to contact settled relatives for shelter and assistance in Delhi, while those without contacts relied on temporary hideouts to establish themselves.

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Chauhan said that after arriving in Delhi, the immigrants contacted job facilitators who placed them in low-wage roles such as garbage collection and service jobs.

The mastermind of the nexus, identified as Mohammad Moinuddin, ran a computer shop in Amir Khusro Nagar near Nizamuddin, where he forged birth certificates and other documents like PAN, Aadhaar, and voter cards with the help of advanced editing tools, enabling immigrants to masquerade as Indian citizens in collusion with Aadhaar agents Zulfiqar Ansari, Javed, and Farman Khan, who were bribed to enrol them into official records.

Additionally, the nexus facilitated the cross-border flow of cash by first depositing money into bank accounts, which was then transferred to agents at the border via UPI and subsequently sent to their families in Bangladesh through the hawala channel, the DCP said.

Another person Mohammad Shaheen secured jobs for the immigrants, while Manwar Hussain and Nimai Karmakar orchestrated illicit cash transfers to Bangladesh.

Notably, among the 14 Bangladeshi nationals, Mohammad Jewel Islam and Alamgir had been living in India since 2007 and had enrolled themselves in schools using forged documents. Another immigrant, Mohammad Rejaul, a resident since 2000, illegally obtained an Indian passport and travelled between India and Bangladesh 22 times in two years while working as a cab driver.

So far, eight immigrants have been arrested, six have been deported via the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), and four suspects are under scrutiny.

The bust followed the unearthing of a similar module by the Crime Branch a day earlier in which three immigrants and an Indian facilitator were apprehended.