Nigerian national held while trying to enter Bangladesh

Kolkata: A Nigerian national and a woman were apprehended by Border Security Force when they tried to enter Bangladesh through Hazrakhali outpost in West Bengal’s Nadia district on Tuesday.

The border guards had stopped the two persons near the outpost in the early hours of Tuesday when they were trying to cross the border, a BSF statement said.

The Nigerian national was identified as Chikanso Ibezim, currently residing in Noida area, near Delhi. He had come to India on a student visa in October, 2015.

Ibezim told the interrogators that he had come to Kolkata in a special train from New Delhi one day back, hired a taxi to reach Bagula in Nadia district, and was planning to cross over to Bangladesh “to visit the country as a traveller”, the statement said.

The Nigerian, who had done his M.Tech from Mewar University, said that he had paid money to a tout.

The woman has been identified as Laxmi Rajbanshi, a resident of Kanchrapara in North 24 Parganas district.

She had been asked by the same tout to cross the border along with the Nigerian, Rajbanshi told the interrogators.

Both persons have been handed over to the Hanskhali police station and a manhunt has been launched for the tout, the statement said.