HYDERABAD: Four Myanmar refugees who had falsely obtained Indian identification cards have been arrested by the Balapur police along with a city resident who helped them get the IDs. The Rohingyas, Mohammed Elias alias Alyas, 31, his wife Yasmeen Aira Begum, 25, Noor Rashid alias Jawed Shaik, 26, and Murshid Alam, 22, of Akran district of Myanmar came to India five years ago, as refugees, and settled down at Wadi-e-Omer area in Shaheen Nagar of Balapur. They were given UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) cards, as refugees.
Since their settlement in the city along with several other refugees, they were working as labourers with construction contractors. Meantime, the Rohingyas met Mohammed Bin Omer, 44, of Chandrayangutta and Ahsan Zia Ansari, 37, living in Kamatipura, and both promised to help the Rohingyas get Indian identification cards in return for some money.
Balapur inspector S. Mohan Reddy said, “Omer has taken Rs 1 lakh from Elias and his wife to arrange the identification cards as Indian citizens. Initially, Omer arranged voter identification cards for Elias and his wife, by producing an electricity bill that they were tenants of his house, and then arranged Aadhaar cards with the help of the voter IDs. In a similar way, Ansari arranged Aadhaar and voter IDs for Jawed and Murshid,” said Mr Reddy.
Following a tip-off, a police team raided the houses of the refugees and found their UNHCR cards along with their voter IDs and Aadhaar cards, and recovered Rs 1lakh cash from Omer, while Ansari has gone absconding. “Once Ansari is caught, we will get more information,” said the inspector.
