Siliguri (West Bengal): The Border Security Force (BSF) has apprehended a Bangladeshi policeman after he illegally crossed the India-Bangladesh international border in West Bengal, officials said Saturday. Mohammad Seikh Sohel Rana (46), an inspector with the Dhaka metropolitan police, was nabbed while he was moving suspiciously on Indian territory Friday.
The BSF north Bengal frontier, in a statement, said the policeman crossed over the India-Bangladesh border with the help of a Bangladeshi tout by paying him Bangladeshi Taka 10,000.
The north Bengal frontier guards over 932 kms of the total 4,096 kms of the India-Bangladesh border on the country’s eastern flank and is headquartered at Kadamtala in West Bengal’s Siliguri.
The policeman told the BSF that he started his journey from Dhaka on a bus September 2 and reached Patgram in the bordering Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh. He crossed the international border around 12.30 pm Friday, the BSF said.
Rana had joined the Dhaka metropolitan police as a sub-inspector in 2003. “He was placed under suspension along with 21 other police personnel from 2003-2008 and his suspension was revoked in 2008,” the BSF said.
The inspector, who hails from Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, said he was planning to go to Kathmandu in Nepal. He has been handed over to the local police, the BSF said, adding that four debit cards, 20 US dollars, 15 euros, two smart phones with SIM cards of the neighbouring country and a few medicines were seized from his possession.