JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Crl. O.P. No.5875 of 2021 filed u/s 438 Cr.P.C. praying this Court to enlarge the petitioner on anticipatory bail in the event of his arrested in Crime No.1 of 2020 dated 12.10.2020 u/s 420, 465, 468, 471 IPC and Section 14 A(b) of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Section 12 (1)(c) of the Passport Act, 1967, on the file of Q Branch, Crime Investigation Department, Kancheepuram.)

1. The safety and security of a country lies in the proper implementation of the procedures relating to entry and exit of persons originating from other countries. The Bureau of Immigration is the watchdog with regard to entry and exit of the persons from other countries and, in turn, the Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRRO) and Foreigners Registration Officers (FRO) are the persons, who are required to keep a tab on the persons, who enter the Indian terrain for various reasons by obtaining the requisite permission and their exit is to be monitored so that their illegal stay beyond their permissible stay is avoided.

2. In the present batch of petitions, bail is sought for by the petitioners therein, who are persons of different nationality, viz., Srilankan, Nigerian, Chinese, Iranian and Bangladeshi, who are either overstaying within the Indian territory beyond the validity of their visa or have entered the country illegally without proper immigration/visa document and are staying in the country. The petitioners, due to certain acts, have come to adverse notice of the police, which has resulted in the filing of the respective complaints and subsequent remand of the petitioners on their arrest and production before the concerned Court.

3. Initially Crl. O.P. No.7951/2021 came up before this Court on 28.04.2021, in which the petitioner, a Nigerian National, is alleged to have come from Nigeria to India on a business visa for the purpose of exporting garments to Nigeria and an act, within the legal contours, was perpetrated by the petitioner, complaint was registered against the petitioner, thus landing him behind the bars from which he sought relief by enlargement on bail.

4. However, this Court felt that this is not a case in isolation, where, persons of different nationalities, under the guise of business/employment/tourist enter the country and overstay the visa period, without resorting to have their visa extended and that many forms of crimes are perpetrated by such of those individuals, which shake the economic stability, peace and tranquility of the country, this Court felt that such acts should be nipped in the bud, else the same would have major ramifications, not only to the economic stability, but also to the security of the country and that acts of such individuals casts a serious shadow on the persons doing legitimate business, in the interest and welfare of the nation and its economic stability and also for the purpose of weeding out such unscrupulous elements, had directed the Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore to file necessary status report providing the following details :-

i) The total number of foreign nationals, who are at present staying in and around Coimbatore and Tiruppur Districts;

ii) How many of the said foreign nationals are Nigerians;

iii) How many of the persons are staying with valid visas and how many persons are staying beyond the validity of the visas;

iv) How many of the foreign nationals have criminal cases registered against them and under what provisions of the criminal law;

v) Whether such of those persons have been apprehended and remanded to judicial custody;

vi) If not the steps taken by the law enforcement wing for apprehending such individuals.

5. Pursuant to the said direction, interim status report was filed on behalf of the Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore District, giving the details of the foreign nationals, who are under the scanner of the police authorities and the various cas