Representative image of a police van.
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Bengaluru: Police have filed the charge sheet against 17 Pakistani nationals who illegally entered India and were living in Bengaluru under Hindu names.
The Pakistanis claim to be members of the Mehdi Foundation International (MFI), a London-headquartered organisation that "preaches and practices divine love... does not associate itself with any religion," according to its website.
The Pakistanis, residing in the Bengaluru suburbs of Jigani and Peenya, were arrested between late September and early October. Parvez, an Indian national from UP, was also arrested for helping the Pakistanis illegally enter India via Bangladesh and settle here.
Officers from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) camped in Bengaluru for six days in early October to interrogate the accused and collect data about them, a well-placed police source told DH.
"All the suspects were questioned individually, and their details were documented," the source said.
Informed police sources explained that the information collected would assist the NIA and the IB in determining whether the accused were involved in any criminal activities in India, as well as in monitoring them if they commit any “illegal activities” in the future.
The Jigani police completed the investigations within a month and recently submitted a charge sheet running into over 1,200 pages. The Pakistanis have been charged under IPC sections related to cheating and forgery and under the Passports Act. The court has yet to frame the charges.
Currently lodged in the Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara, they applied for bail multiple times but the court has rejected their pleas, the police source said.
'They want to stay'
A police officer closed to the investigation revealed that none of the 17 Pakistanis had showed interest in going back to their home country as they feared they would be persecuted there.
MFI members believe in Shahi, who claims to be Mehdi, a messianic figure in Islam who will appear at the end of times.
In 2007, 63 Pakistanis linked to the MFI protested at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and burnt their Pakistani passports. One of them was a woman who later married Parvez. While 62 of them eventually found asylum in European countries, Parvez’s wife stayed back in India following her marriage.
The Jigani police have written to the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs' Bureau of Immigration, seeking its intervention and are awaiting a response.