The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case to look into the allegations that Bangladeshi women were being trafficked into Jharkhand, leading to the generation of illegal funds, PTI reported on Tuesday.

The central agency registered an enforcement case information report under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on a first information report filed at the Bariyatu police station in Ranchi on June 6, The Times of India reported.

The first information report pertained to the alleged trafficking of six women, all in their 20s, from Bangladesh into India, according to the newspaper. All six were arrested after a raid by the police.

The police claimed that fake documents, including Aadhaar cards, were recovered from the women.

The women were booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, using as genuine a forged document and common intention in the report, according to PTI.

They were also charged under Sections 12 of the Passport Act, which pertains to knowingly furnishing any false information or suppressing any material information with a view to obtaining a passport or travel document, and 14A of the Foreigners Act on penalty for entry in restricted area.

The central agency has already gathered information about the operation of a network engaged in trafficking people from Bangladesh through Jharkhand, The Times of India quoted an unidentified official as saying.

“A large syndicate is operating across Jharkhand and Bengal in illegal infiltration, making fake identity proof, which are criminal activities linked to proceeds of crime under Section 2(1)(u) of PMLA [Prevention of Money Laundering Act],” said the unidentified official.

The registration of the Enforcement Directorate case came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday repeated the claims that alleged “infiltrators” were taking over positions in panchayats in the Santhal Pargana, the northeastern region of Jharkhand.

The region comprises six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur. It has traditionally been home to the Santal Adivasi community.

In the run-up to the Assembly elections in Jharkhand, several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have alleged that “Bangladeshi infiltrators” were marrying Adivasi women to grab their land and property, and to use them as proxies to gain power in the region.

A Scroll investigation has found such claims to be false.

Asha Lakra, a BJP politician and member of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, had also claimed that 10 Adivasi women elected representatives in nine panchayats in Sahibganj were married to “Bangladeshi infiltrators, Rohingya Muslims”.

Scroll has found that four of the 10 cases Lakra cited were false. Three of the women had Adivasi husbands. The fourth, Kapra Tudu, had married outside the Adivasi community, but her husband, Nitin Saha, is Hindu, not Muslim.

In six cases, where Adivasi women panchayat leaders were indeed married to Muslims, all of them told Scroll they had married out of choice. “The Indian constitution gives us the freedom to marry whom we please,” one said.

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