A Bangladeshi national, Shanta Paul, has been arrested in Kolkata for allegedly residing in India using forged identity documents. According to police, Paul entered India legally in 2023 via a valid passport from Barisal, Bangladesh. However, she later procured fake Indian documents—including an Aadhaar card, PAN card, voter ID, and ration card—with the help of a local agent. These documents were used to sign rental agreements in Park Street and Golf Green areas of Kolkata, where she lived with her husband, Shaik Mohammad Ashraf, an Indian national working in the merchant navy. The couple reportedly married in Nadia district on June 5, 2025, and Shanta kept Ashraf’s passport in her possession.

The arrest came after authorities discovered that the documents she submitted to landlords were counterfeit. Investigators say she misrepresented her identity to settle in India, claiming familial discord over her marriage to a Muslim man as the reason for living independently. Police confirmed that she used the forged identity to access property rentals and possibly other Indian services, which now forms the basis of multiple charges against her. She is currently in police custody until August 8, while investigations continue into the extent of the forgery and the network involved in fabricating such documents.

Shanta Paul, who represented Bangladesh at the Indo-Bangla Beauty Pageant in 2016 and won Miss Asia Global in 2019, has also built a career in regional cinema. Over the past two years, she acted in Tamil and Bengali films and had even signed an Odia project. Before her arrest, she was also employed as a crew member for a Bangladeshi airline. Her involvement in multiple high-profile sectors has further raised questions about potential security lapses in identity verification. Authorities are also probing whether she used her forged identity for any financial or commercial gains within India.