Kolkata Police on Friday night arrested a Bangladeshi national living in the city for around two years with forged documents.

The man, Salim Matabbar, had assumed the alias Ravi Sharma and was working in a hotel in central Calcutta’s Marquis Street.

He was arrested following a raid by a team from the Park Street police station and has been remanded in custody till December 8.

According to police sources, Matabbar’s name came up during an investigation by a Karnataka police team that had arrested six Bangladeshi nationals from Chitradurga.

The six had taken up jobs in the textile factories in the Karnataka town.

The Karnataka cops had also arrested an Indian youth, identified as Arnab Mandal, who ran a cyber café on the south-eastern fringes of Bengaluru. He was arrested for allegedly providing fake documents to the Bangladeshi nationals.

The cops in Bengaluru are investigating the count of Bangladeshi nationals similarly helped by Mandal, from whose shop the cops seized a number of rental agreements, PAN and Aadhaar cards.

Matabbar, who has reportedly claimed to be a resident of Madaripur in Bangladesh, is suspected to be linked to a political party in the neighbouring country and had fled into India fearing persecution.

Matabbar’s arrest has come at a time when relations between India and Bangladesh have plummeted following the arrest of a Hindu monk.

The Indian government has expressed concern over the attacks on the minority Hindu population in Bangladesh, where a caretaker government under Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus is in charge while the country awaits political reforms and elections.

“We suspect this man [Matabbar] could be involved in a racket supplying forged documents to undocumented migrants from the neighbouring country. Whether he has links with any other organisation is also being looked into,” said a senior Kolkata Police officer.

The Calcutta cops will seek Matabbar’s custody to interrogate him further on his ties to the racket.

The six arrested in Karnataka last week were identified as Sheikh Shaipur Rahman, Mohammad Suman Hosen Ali, Mazharul Maruf, Azizul Shaikh, Mohammad Sadiq Sikdar and Sanowar Hussain.