Afghan national who worked at Cochin Shipyard on expired visa held

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Eid Gul (inset) had reportedly worked for two years at the Cochin Shipyard on false identify

Kochi: An Afghan national, Eid Gul, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly working at the strategically important shipyard here after his visa had expired.

A special team comprising the Ernakulam South police had arrested Gul from Kolkata, where had gone into hiding after an investigation was launched recently.

ACP Nizamuddin said that they managed to track him down after a week-long investigation. "It was not easy to track him as he had got rid of the phone he was using. But we studied all his connections in Kochi and traced his location to a village in Kolkata," said ACP Nizamuddin.

The police team from Kerala had sought the help of the Bowbazar Police in Kolkata. However, the ACP said that his team did not encounter any hostility while arresting Eid Gul.

He has been remanded to judicial custody and the police have sought his custody for questioning.

Meanwhile, the Cochin Shipyard Limited, where Gul was working, has said that they had suspected a foul play while verifying documents and “immediately reported to the police”.

“It was reported that one of the workmen of a sub-contractor was known by a different name other than what he had submitted in his documents. During the course of re-verification of his documents by the Cochin Shipyard Ltd's security, it was observed that he was absconding,” a spokesperson of the shipyard told Onmanorama.

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