A Chinese national, carrying two Swiss passports with different names, was arrested near the Indo-Nepal international border near Siliguri in Darjeeling district in the northern sector of West Bengal on Tuesday. 

He was nabbed by the personnel of the Border Interaction Team of ‘C’ Corps of the 41st battalion of Sashastra Seema Bal early Tuesday morning when he was entering the Indian territory illegally under the Mechi bridge in Panitanki area in north Bengal, which shares the country’s border with Nepal.

According to SSB sources, the jawans became suspicious of the body language of the arrested individual and intercepted him. Upon checking his identity documents, the central force personnel became sure of his doubtful background.

After the initial interrogation and verifying his documents, the jawans recovered two Swiss passports from his possession with two different names.

In one of the passports, his name was mentioned as Khamritshang Seten Gurme. However, in another passport, his name was mentioned as Sengeitsang Karma Jimmy.

At the same time, a fake Nepali citizenship card was recovered from the arrested person. Since the matter was sensitive and suspicious, the intelligence and security departments of the SSB jointly interrogated the person and collected all the information. Later, they handed him over to the cops of the local Kharibari police station of the Darjeeling district police.

Darjeeling Superintendent of Police Praveen Prakash confirmed the arrest of the Chinese national. “He will be taken into custody and questioned. It is being investigated whether anyone else is involved in the incident,” he added.

It may be noted that on October 13 last year, the SSB and West Bengal Police had arrested a Chinese national and an Indian broker at the same place. Before that, in July 2023, a Chinese citizen with a forged Nepali identity document was arrested at the same Panitanki area.