5 Rohingya refugees held in Nuh over lack of papers, one had fake Aadhaar

Gurgaon: Five Rohingya refugees, including a woman and her two-year-old son, have been arrested in Nuh for not having cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). These cards affirm their refugee status and prevent authorities from taking any “arbitrary action” against them.
Fake Aadhaar and PAN cards were also recovered from one of them. While police said the five had sneaked into India illegally, Nuh MLA Aftab Ahmed dubbed the arrests a case of “harassment”.
On Wednesday, seven Rohingya refugees were detained initially. While two of them could produce valid papers and were released, the five were arrested over lack of documents. “This is an ongoing investigation. The five Rohingya who were arrested have been kept in judicial custody. They didn’t have refugee cards, which means they were staying illegally,” said Narendra Bijarniya, the SP of Nuh.
Saidul Ameen, one of the five accused, was found with fake Aadhaar and PAN cards. Police said the Aadhaar card he had mentioned an address of Aligarh in UP. Although he had a photocopy of a refugee card issued by UNHCR, the date of birth mentioned on it and the one on the Aadhaar card were different.
Saidul, who had been working at a meat export company for the past two years, had also procured a fake GST number. “We found a GST form after searching him. To apply for a GST form, there are certain conditions that need to be fulfilled. We think he has more forged documents in his possession. We are looking into that,” a police officer said.
Saidul has been booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using genuine as a forged) of the IPC. The others — identified as Ridhwan, Arfat and Haseena — have been arrested under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, for not having proper documents. Arfat and Haseena have also been charged under Section 12 of the Passports Act, 1967.
“All of them had crossed the border illegally. They didn’t have a visa, passport or any other document. Haseena’s three-year old son will remain in detention with his mother,” the officer said.
The police said they would conduct random checks on Rohingya families in Nuh. A couple of weeks ago, three men from Bangladesh and Myanmar were arrested from Ghaziabad railway station for alleged trafficking of Rohingya women and children in Delhi-NCR.
Ahmed, the Nuh MLA, described the arrests as “harassment” by the police. “This is a clear case of harassment. There are roughly a thousand Rohingya families living in Nuh and they are trying hard to eke out a living. Earlier, some of them had applied for an Aadhar card. But when they realised that such documents were applicable for only Indian citizens, they backed out,” he added.
The MLA, however, did not say anything about the fact that the five arrested Rohingya did not have refugee cards either.