Landlords must give details of foreigners staying on rent: Bengaluru top cop
Bengaluru: To clamp down on foreigners, who are overstaying in the city in violation of their visa, Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh on March 11 issued a magisterial order making it mandatory for landlords in the city, who have let out their premises to foreigners, to register the details of their tenants along with a photocopy of their passports with the jurisdictional police.
“Any violation to the order will attract punishment under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant, who is lawfully empowered to promulgate such an order),” said an official source.
The order comes in the wake of the recent High Court direction to the state government to deport those foreign nationals who have overstayed in violation of their visas. According to recent statistics with the police, there are around 15,000 foreign students in Bengaluru, of whom over 750 students have overshot their stay and have been asked to leave. Last year 300, students were deported from the city after their visas expired.
The city police have requested the government to set up some temporary detention centres for foreigners, who have to be deported. “The police with the help of Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) need to identify foreigners who are staying in the country illegally. They should be accommodated in one place so that the authorities can communicate with their embassies and consulates to expedite their deportation process,” said the officer.
“The biggest difficulty is in keeping a tab on foreigners, especially students, who have overshot their visa. They disappear from their location and change cities to avoid deportation or indulge in crimes, leading to their arrest to ensure their stay in the host country. Many of them who do not wish to return to their country also destroy their passports so that they can extend their stay here till new passports are issued to them,” he said.
The Sudanese student, Mohammed Ahmed Ismail, who allegedly killed a local resident Shabana Taj in a road accident near Hesaraghatta main road on January 31, had overshot his visa, which had expired on December 31, 2015.
He and around 750 other foreign students in the city had been issued notices in mid-January to leave the country immediately after their visas had expired.
According to Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946 an overstaying foreign national is one who remains in any area in India exceeding the period for which the visa was issued to him/her or the one who indulges in any act in violation of the conditions of the valid visa issued to him/her for his/her entry and stay in India.
