The Kolkata Police (KP) arrested a Bangladeshi national and former leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Friday night who had been staying in a hotel on Marquis Street for the past two years. Police have seized fake documents like Aadhaar card and a passport from him.
He was produced before the Bankshall court on Saturday afternoon and remanded to police custody.
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The arrest of Matabbar was made in Kolkata at a time when the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh have plummeted after a Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das was nabbed by Bangladeshi police at Dhaka airport.
Acting on tip-off, a team from Park Street police station raided the hotel in Marquis Street and nabbed the man who identified himself as Rabi Sharma, police officials said.
To corroborate his identity, Sharma produced a photocopy of what he claimed was his Aadhaar card as well as a passport. A senior police official said, “Even after that, we felt something was amiss and questioned him further.”
During interrogations, Sharma confessed to the investigating police officials that that his original name was Selim Matabbar and that he was hailed from Madaripur in Bangladesh, sources said. He fled from Bangladesh two years ago following a political dispute with the then ruling party Awami League and since then was living in Kolkata.
Since arriving in Kolkata, he had been working at the hotel on Marquis Street.
After his confession, Park Street police arrested the accused.
According to police sources, Matabbar’s name came up during an investigation conducted by a team of Karnataka Police that had arrested six Bangladeshi nationals from Chitradurga.
