Six months after deportation, Bangladeshi national held again in Mumbai; police flag West Bengal border gaps

A 46-year-old Bangladeshi woman who was deported in August 2025 after being found living illegally in Mira-Bhayander has been apprehended again in Mumbai, highlighting concerns over porous border controls, police officials said.

According to a report by the Times of India, Rabiya Nasir Mulla was recently detained from Vile Parle (West), barely six months after being deported to Bangladesh. She had earlier been caught by the Mira-Bhayander Vasai-Virar police and sent back on August 8, 2025.

Police said Mulla, who had worked as a domestic help and lived in Mira-Bhayander for about 25 years, told investigators she managed to re-enter India by crossing the border through forested areas.


Officials cited by TOI said such cases have raised concerns within the Mumbai police, who have intensified action against illegal immigrants. They indicated that security along the West Bengal border appears inadequate, alleging that some deported individuals may have re-entered India by bribing border personnel.

In the past two years, 1,237 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been detained across Maharashtra, the report said. The crackdown has led to a rise in arrests not only in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) but across the state.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Satyanarayan Chaudhary told TOI that all 93 police stations in Mumbai have stepped up efforts to identify and detain illegal immigrants.

“The action has yielded results with 1,000-plus illegal immigrants being deported in 2025. The city police stations have been instructed to continuously crack down on illegal immigrants. Action continues with hundreds caught in 2026 to be deported soon,” he said.

Mulla was apprehended following a tip-off from police constable Nitin Chawle. The operation was supervised by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) Dikshit Gedam and carried out by a team led by Juhu police senior inspector Sunil Jadhav and inspector Vijay Dhotre, TOI reported.

She told Juhu police that she had been deported on a flight along with around 1,600 other Bangladeshis from across Maharashtra in August 2025.

In a separate case last week, Versova police detained 21 Bangladeshi nationals, including 18 transgenders, who were allegedly residing illegally in Andheri (West). A police officer told TOI that a report has been submitted to the Foreigners Registration Officer in Mumbai for further action and deportation.

Earlier in January, two Bangladeshi women who had been deported last year were also arrested in south Mumbai. Zulekha Jamal Sheikh, 38, was apprehended near the Gateway of India and told police she had been living on a footpath in the Kamathipura area before being deported in August 2025.

Similarly, 30-year-old Bilkis Begum Sirmiya Akhtar was arrested from the Cuffe Parade area and told police she had been deported by the Mumbai crime branch in August 2025 but re-entered the city illegally, according to the TOI report.

With inputs from TOI