The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on Sunday evening arrested two Chinese nationals after they were caught illegally crossing the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district. The accused couldn’t produce any valid documents to validate their presence in Indian territory, the SSB said.
According to SSB commander Rajan Kumar Srivastava of 51 Battalion, the two Chinese nationals have been identified as Yung Hai Lung (34) and Lo Lung (28). They were rounded up while trying to enter Nepal from India through the Bhithamore border outpost, which falls under the jurisdiction of Susand police station in Sitamarhi, around 7:45 pm.
An FIR has been lodged with the Susand police based on the statement of SSB personnel Murari Kumar in connection with their ‘illegal’ entry, and ‘financial fraud’. Both were produced before a court on Monday and sent to judicial custody.
The Union ministry of external affairs (MEA) has been alerted regarding the development, local officials confirmed.
The SSB personnel seized two passports, mobile phones, power banks, ATM cards, $133 in US currency, ₹2,000 in Indian currency, medicines, cigarettes and airline boarding passes. During a joint interrogation by the SSB and Sitamarhi police, they found that the Chinese nationals reached Kathmandu from Thailand on May 23 with a woman and held a Nepali visa for one month.
The seized ATM cards were allegedly issued by a private bank in the names of two Assamese citizens.
“On May 24, they hired a taxi and travelled to Noida where they stayed at the flat of another Chinese national named Jacky till June 10 before returning to Bhithamore in a taxi. After arriving in Sitamarhi, they boarded a rickshaw to enter the Nepal border when the SSB personnel intercepted them near pillar number 301, around 10 metres within Indian territory,” the investigation revealed.
Sitamarhi SP Harkishore Rai told HT that the Chinese nationals confessed they entered Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh via the Nepal border.
SSB DIG K Ranjit told reporters that both have been handed over local police for further interrogation. The SSB intelligence is also in the process of collecting more details about their movements and reasons to visit Noida from Nepal via Bihar.
“This entry of Chinese people into India is becoming an alarming trend and we need to be more careful. We are also trying to know whether there were some more people who came with them,” a senior district police officer said.
Earlier on 19 December 2021, a 39-year-old Chinese national was arrested by the SSB from Madhubani’s Madhwapur block in Bihar after he entered India through the Indo-Nepal border without valid documents. The accused was identified as Ziyou Jiang Shi, a resident of Fujian province on the southern coast of China, police said.