Balurghat, Dec. 9: Police have stumbled upon a fake income tax PAN card from one of the three Bangladeshi youths who were arrested on the border at Hili on Saturday.

With the entire security set up in the country in a tizzy over the large number of SIM cards procured by the terrorists before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the police now fear that the fake PAN card may have been used to procure mobile phone connections.

The trio, residents of Pirganj area of Bangladesh’s Thakurgaon district, had been picked up from Trimohini, 22km from here.

One of the accused, Dipen Barman, had told the police that he had come to look for his father-in-law who had allegedly infiltrated into India recently. The other youth, Ganesh Barman, claimed that he had lived in North Dinajpur’s Chopra for the past seven years and had married a local woman.

The third man, Abdul Khalek, 40, was the one the police said they were suspicious about. Abdul was carrying a PAN card issued in his name with the number BBNPK9446H. The police said they had tried to verify the number online but found it to be not in the income tax department records.

The additional police superintendent of South Dinajpur, Imran Wahab, said the card details had been given to the income tax department for further inquiries. District intelligence officers have also been interrogating Abdul.

The trio told their interrogators that they did not know each other. The police said they did not take any chance after the Mumbai attacks and brought the three in their remand for seven days following a court order.

Abdul had told the police that he had entered India six years ago for a job. He initially worked for a contractor called Pradip Kumar Ruia in Gurgaon near Delhi and currently runs a construction company on his own. He had procured the PAN card four months ago from a man called Mobarak in Noida for Rs 700. He said he did not have any voter ID or ration card.

According to the police, Abdul wanted to procure a SIM card and send it to his mother who lives along the border so that she could call him in India without paying ISD charges.

Wahab said the police were looking into all aspects of Abdul’s claims. “We have been very careful with the investigations.”