In a special drive launched against foreigners staying illegally, the North East division police on Monday detained eight African nationals living in the city without travel documents.
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Based on intelligence inputs gathered for many days, 11 special teams raided the houses and caught eight African nationals and handed them over to the detention centre.
Many of the accused suspected to be part of anti-social activities, either have no travel documents or carry the photocopies of forged passport or visas, the police said.
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However, due to space constraints, the detention centre staff returned one of the African nationals to the police. With no options available, the police arrested him under the Foreigners Act and remanded him to judicial custody to Parappana Agrahara to accommodate him.
The detention centre is full and the police have been asked not to carry out any special drives against illegal immigrants until the FRRO speeds up the work to deport the detainees.
The detention centre with a capacity of around 40 inmates, gets overcrowded and the officials consider the gender and seniority of the inmates to release them on undertaking. The police also avoid booking foreigners under IPC and other Acts and they would prefer to get arrested and sent to Parappana Agrahara instead of going to the detention centre and deported, a senior officer said.
The arrest and demanding them to judicial custody also indirectly get them permit to stay in city as they cite the reason of cases voomed against them and stay back on the pretext of attending court hearings.