Kolkata, June 17 (IANS) BJP leader Amit Malviya claimed on Tuesday that under the current Trinamool Congress regime led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal is rapidly becoming a leading global supplier of jihadis.

“Under Mamata Banerjee, Bengal has already become a safe haven for jihadis and infiltrators – and now, it is fast emerging as a leading global supplier of jihadis!” said Malviya in a statement which he posted on his official X handle.

Quoting media reports, Malviya said that a massive fake birth certificate racket was running in Pathankhali under Gosaba block in South 24 Parganas district, where a contractual worker, Gautam Sardar, successfully issued over 4,000 fake birth certificates between 2021 and 2025 using the credentials of the chief of the local village panchayat.

“These certificates were sold to jihadis from Bangladesh, giving them a direct highway to Indian citizenship, and enabling them to obtain Indian passports and immigrate to countries like Italy, Thailand, and the UAE,” Malviya claimed.

The fact that fake birth certificates were acting as the roots for arranging other Indian identity documents was first noticed earlier this year by the investigating officials probing the multi-crore fake passport rackets operating from the state.

The investigating sleuths noticed a pattern in the running of such rackets. The illegal infiltrators, mainly from Bangladesh, were first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal, and subsequently, the agents arranged for fake birth certificates and fake ration cards for them, which were the first steps for making other identity documents.

Through the fake ration cards and birth certificates, other Indian identity documents like EPIC, PAN, and Aadhaar cards were prepared for them. The last step was arranging fake passports for them based on these other fake identity documents.

According to Malviya, the case of Pathankhali was just one case of a panchayat office being used to issue fake birth certificates.

“Imagine the scale of this rot if such operations were happening across Bengal! Under Mamata Banerjee’s rule – where jobs are scarce and governance has collapsed – she seems desperate to build her crooked empire on the back of illegal infiltrators. This is not just corruption or a lapse in governance. This is NATIONAL TREASON—Institutionalised,” Malviya’s statement read.

–IANS

src/dpb