Lucknow: A joint team of Bahraich police and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) arrested a 39-year-old Sri Lankan national for allegedly staying in the border area without a valid visa, passport or other travel documents, police said on Friday.The arrested man, identified as Ajith Kumar, son of Vivekanandan, is a resident of Manipay in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna district. He was apprehended near Manoj Singh’s grocery shop in Nidhipurwa village under the jurisdiction of Murtia police station during a joint patrol and crime-prevention operation on Oct 23.According to the police, the man was found moving around the area without valid travel documents. A case was registered against him at Murtia police station under Section 21 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, and legal proceedings have been initiated.According to preliminary information shared by officials, the four had travelled to the border area in an auto-rickshaw and were reportedly asking for directions to Nepal. SSB personnel at the checkpost faced difficulty communicating with them because of a language barrier.The security personnel questioned the group and conducted preliminary checks of their belongings and documents. During the inquiry, passports belonging to the three Sri Lankan nationals were reportedly found. Officials said the visas linked to the passports had expired around three months earlier, raising questions about their immigration status and their presence in the border region.The SSB later handed over all four individuals to Murtia police station for detailed questioning and further legal action.The other two Sri Lankan nationals were identified as Kaushalya (38) and Prabhap (38), both residents of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The fourth person was identified as Dharm Sudhakar (35), a woman from Tamil Nadu, described in the report as Sudhakar’s wife.SP, Bahraich, Vishwajeet Srivastava, said that only Ajith was arrested because he possessed no official documents while others had documents which were also verified by the agencies.Police said the action formed part of an ongoing drive to prevent crime and curb illegal activities in the border region.
