A man was arrested by police near Dinhata in Cooch Behar district on Tuesday afternoon for allegedly entering India illegally from Bangladesh and residing in the area for years under a false identity.

Omar Faruk Byapari was picked up from Putimari under the jurisdiction of the Sahebganj police station. Police sources said he had crossed the border from Bangladesh several years back and begun living at Putimari by introducing an Indian citizen as his father.

Byapari is accused of using forged identity documents to live for a long time at Chowdhuryhat and Nagarerbari in Dinhata 2 Block.

In the first week of December, two Trinamool Congress members of the Nagarerbari panchayat — Shahidur Rahman and Shamim Dulal Sheikh — filed separate complaints at the district magistrate’s office, alleging that Byapari was a Bangladeshi who had illegally entered India.

The residents claimed that the accused went into hiding soon after the allegations surfaced, prompting the police to launch a search operation. Byapari was apprehended from a house in Putimari on Tuesday.

A police officer said questions regarding his citizenship first arose during the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list.

The two complainants also said Byapari had illegally obtained voter and Aadhaar cards and had previously been arrested with firearms.

Byapari, however, denied the charge and said that Trinamool had falsely implicated him.