Lucknow, Dec 13 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has busted a gang involved in sending Bangladeshis abroad on Indian passports with arrest of nine people including the racket's kingpin, police said on Monday.

The ATS had gathered information that eight Bangladeshi nationals were being brought to Delhi in Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express via Kanpur, an ATS statement said.

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Boarding at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Railway Station, a team of ATS identified the eight suspects and made them deboard the train at Kanpur station and brought them to Lucknow on Sunday, the release said.

The eight Bangladeshi nationals were identified as Rinku Vishwas, Ajit Das, Rajesh Vishwas, Palash Vishwas, Vijay Das, Golak Mandal, Manik Dutta and Govinda Das, according to the statement.

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Upon interrogation, they revealed that the gang leader took Rs 1 lakh in cash from each one of them to provide documents of Indian citizenship under Indian (Hindu) names and send them abroad as Indian citizens.

Later the mastermind Mahfozur Rehman, originally a resident of Munshiganj district in Bangladesh, and presently residing in Kolkata, was also arrested by the field unit of ATS.

Police found that Rehman has been involved in this work for the past three to four years and also has ties with some Pakistanis, the release said.

It said Rehman had illegally entered India in 2010 on fake documents.

He managed to get an Indian passport and went to Dubai in 2013.

On his return, he took help of his associates bringing Bangladeshi nationals to India illegally and then send them abroad on fake Indian identity, the release added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)