Murshidabad police arrested eight Bangladeshi nationals and one alleged Indian tout late on Saturday night while they were allegedly trying to cross the international border illegally in order to sneak into Bangladesh territory.

Acting on a tip-off, the police intercepted a private car around 10pm in the Gouribag area under Murshidabad police station limits and nabbed all nine individuals on board.

Interrogation by the cops revealed that eight were Bangladeshi citizens, while the Indian national promised to help them cross the border in lieu of a fee.

Alleged tout Jamal Sheikh is a resident of Katlamari village under Raninagar police station limits in Murshidabad district.

The police said that the arrested Bangladeshi nationals, who include three women, hail from areas such as Rajshahi, Khulna, Satkhira and Narail districts and are aged between 22 and 25.

According to preliminary investigation, the group had illegally entered India and travelled to Gujarat around three months ago in search of work.

However, following recent crackdowns on undocumented foreign workers in Gujarat, they decided to return to their own country.

With this aim in mind, they reached Bengal’s Murshidabad district to enter Bangladesh by crossing the border.

After spending two nights hiding near Behrampore, the group was being escorted towards the border by Jamal when they were intercepted by the police and eventually arrested.

“All the Bangladesh nationals and the Indian tout have been arrested based on credible information received from intelligence sources. We tracked their movements and intercepted them as they were en route to the border in a car,” said Raspreet Singh, additional superintendent of police (Lalbagh).

All the nine individuals were produced in the Lalbagh additional chief judicial magistrate’s court on Sunday.

The court heard the case and remanded them to seven days in police custody for further investigations.