Agra: Thirty-eight Bangladeshi citizens who were illegally living in Agra using forged documents will be deported on 13 January after completing three-year prison sentences and detentions under the Foreigners Act.
The group—comprising 20 men, 10 women and eight children—was sent to West Bengal in a bus under tight police security on Saturday following their release from Agra District Jail and a juvenile detention centre. The Border Security Force (BSF) will hand them over to Bangladesh Border Guard in Kolkata on 13 January.
UP Police apprehended the immigrants, all of them slum dwellers, during a midnight raid on 5 February 2023 at Sector 14 of Awas Vikas Colony in Agra’s Sikandra area.
The raid, timed to ensure all residents were present, followed intelligence inputs and tips from local residents ahead of the G20 Summit being hosted by India.
“The illegal immigrants will be handed over to the BSF in Kolkata, from where they will be deported on 13 January,” said Agra ACP (Local Intelligence Unit) Dinesh Singh.
Investigators recovered forged Aadhaar cards and other identity documents during the raid. Police said the immigrants had obtained Aadhaar and PAN cards after years of living in the area, with men working as rag pickers and women as domestic helpers in surrounding colonies.
A case was registered at the Sikandra police station, and the court sentenced them in July 2025 to three years’ imprisonment for violations under the Foreigners Act and for creating forged identity and residence documents. The sentence included time already spent in custody. Their sentences were reduced by a few days for good conduct before their Saturday afternoon release.
The eight children—five boys and three girls—were held in a juvenile detention centre.
India’s Border Security Force (BSF) will coordinate with Bangladesh Border Guard to facilitate the deportation.
In a similar case, the Anti-Terrorism Squad deported two Bangladeshi nationals, Mamun Sheikh and Sunil, on 3 December 2025. The duo, arrested on 4 January 2022, were found in possession of 50 Saudi riyals and 62 counterfeit notes, and were deported after completing their sentences.
The deportations come amid a concerted effort to identify and deport illegal immigrants in the country.
Last year, the Supreme Court suggested to the BJP-led central government to bring back six people who had been deported to Bangladesh as a “temporary measure”. This, the court had said, would ensure they get a full hearing to prove their Indian citizenship.
“If the person is an illegal migrant from Bangladesh, we will not dispute that. But if somebody shows that I am an Indian citizen and can produce evidence, they have a right to be heard,” a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant had said.
The drives were also challenged before courts as dozens of Bengali-speaking workers were detained from slum settlements in Delhi-NCR on the suspicion that they were illegal immigrants.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
Also Read: ‘Illegal Bangladeshis’ availing benefits of schemes, says Maharashtra govt GR; calls for ‘blacklist’