A Bangladeshi national, Sheikh Moinuddin, was arrested in Madhya Pradesh after masquerading for over a decade as an Indian citizen under the false identity of Palash Adhikari, a Hindu from Malda district, West Bengal.
What began as a routine suspicion by local authorities snowballed into a sensational courtroom drama that unearthed the terrifying ease with which infiltrators like Moinuddin obtain Indian documents Aadhaar, Voter ID, PAN cards and embed themselves into the Indian population with Mamata govt issued legitimacy.
This is not just a story of one impostor it is a symptom of a deeply compromised system, and a warning that India’s internal security is vulnerable to cross-border infiltration through fraudulent assimilation.
The saga began when police in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh detained a man who identified himself as Palash Adhikari, a 42-year-old migrant labourer. The police had been monitoring suspicious individuals working at construction sites after intelligence inputs suggested illegal migrants had embedded themselves within the informal labour economy.
When confronted, Palash confidently produced an Aadhaar card, a Voter ID, a PAN card, and a bank passbook all documents that would ordinarily be sufficient proof of Indian citizenship. On paper, his identity was clear:
- Name: Palash Adhikari
- Age: 42
- Father’s Name: Ramesh Adhikari
- Address: Kashimpur village, Malda district, West Bengal
- Religion: Hindu
However, discrepancies in his accent, his inability to correctly name local landmarks in Malda, and inconsistencies in his family narrative raised red flags. The police escalated the case to the judiciary for deeper scrutiny.
In court, the magistrate initiated a routine verification process. The accused repeated the same details confidently. Upon request, the court summoned records from the Election Commission, Aadhaar database, and West Bengal voter rolls.
Surprisingly, all digital records seemed to support Palash’s claim. The voter list showed:
- Ramesh Adhikari as a voter since 1984
- Wife: Sushila Adhikari
- Children listed (2015 update): Subrata, Soumen, Palash, and Rahul
On the surface, it appeared that Palash was being wrongfully accused. But the court wasn’t convinced. The judge, concerned about inconsistencies in age and familial history, ordered the retrieval of historical data—Special Investigation Reports (SIRs) from 2002 and 2010.
The 2002 SIR report listed only two sons of Ramesh Adhikari—Subrata (then 5 years old) and Soumen (then 3). There was no mention of a 19-year-old Palash. The 2010 voter records, again, listed only Subrata and Soumen.
Yet, in 2015, Palash (age 32 then) and another unknown individual Rahul Adhikari were suddenly added as Ramesh’s sons.
Further inquiries into Ramesh Adhikari’s family chronology exposed the deception completely. Ramesh had married in 1993, had his first child, Subrata, in 1995, and second child, Soumen, in 1997. If Palash was 42 in 2025, he would have been born in 1983 ten years before Ramesh’s marriage.
Confronted in court, Ramesh Adhikari summoned from Malda declared under oath, “I only have two sons—Subrata and Soumen. I’ve never heard of any Palash or Rahul Adhikari. These names are not from my family.” This revelation shattered the accused’s narrative. A fake identity had not only been created but had been officially validated by state records, allowing an illegal foreigner to blend into Indian society.
Biometric verification, matched against archived border surveillance databases and suspected infiltrator lists, revealed the accused’s real identity: Sheikh Moinuddin, a resident of Ahmedpur village, Khulna district, Bangladesh. His fingerprints and facial biometrics matched older entries recorded at the Indo-Bangladesh border in the early 2010s.
Further investigation unearthed that Moinuddin had entered India illegally around 2012. He initially worked as a mason and daily wage labourer in Bihar and Jharkhand, before gradually moving westward to Madhya Pradesh. During this time, he managed to obtain:
A forged West Bengal domicile certificate
- A voter ID using Ramesh Adhikari’s family details, likely manipulated with the help of local agents
- An Aadhaar card, leveraging the voter data
- A PAN card and opened bank accounts under his false identity
One of the most disturbing parts of this story is the emergence of ‘Rahul Adhikari’, listed as another son of Ramesh Adhikari in the 2015 records. When asked, Ramesh flatly denied ever having a son by that name.
This points to the possibility of another Bangladeshi infiltrator, potentially working in tandem with Moinuddin or part of a wider network exploiting West Bengal’s porous border and corrupted administrative frameworks. Police are now conducting a manhunt for this mysterious Rahul, who may also have received Indian documents through the same fraudulent process.
Local whistleblowers from Malda, speaking on condition of anonymity, allege that local leaders and panchayat officials have long been aware of these infiltrations. The vote-bank politics of West Bengal and bordering districts has created a toxic environment, where illegal migrants are welcomed, documented, and even protected in exchange for votes.
Investigators believe that a network of middlemen, corrupt clerks, and politically aligned agents helped Moinuddin and others obtain Indian documents.
According to a confidential intelligence dossier accessed by this publication, Sheikh Moinuddin had been on a watchlist for suspected links to fundamentalist groups operating in Eastern India. Though no direct terror links have yet been confirmed, officials believe he acted as a courier and recruiter for radical Islamist cells.
His profession as a migrant labourer allowed him to move across states unnoticed, while his forged Hindu identity gave him cover from ethnic profiling.
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