Acting on a tip-off, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at New Jalpaiguri station arrested 14 foreign nationals, suspected to be Rohingya, on Tuesday night while they were on their way to Delhi from the Northeast on a special Rajdhani Express.

Interrogation revealed they have fled from a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) sources said none had any identity proof of Indian citizenship. They had also booked tickets under false names.

S. Chanda, the chief public relations officer of NFR, said a passenger’s call from the Agartala-New Delhi Special Rajdhani Express to RPF security control helpline in Alipurduar first alerted them.

RPF officers passed the message to their counterparts in New Jalpaiguri. As the train reached NJP, RPF and GRP teams got on board and found the passengers.

“The 14 who had boarded the train from Badarpur did not have identity cards to prove their Indian citizenship, and details of their tickets revealed they were travelling under fake names, that is, with tickets generated in the names of others,” the CPRO added.

All of them were asked to get down and were taken to the GRP station in NJP.

“They are suspected to be Rohingya and a case has been registered against them under Section 14A of the Foreigners (Amendment) Act,” Chanda added.

On Wednesday, they were produced at a court and sent to judicial custody, said sources.