Birth certs to B’deshis: Mayor says 119 taken back, FIR on 116 | page 23A month after she raised the issue of birth certificates being issued fraudulently to Bangladeshis, Mumbai’s mayor Ritu Tawde on Wednesday said of the 237 cases reviewed, 119 certificates have been removed from the BMC portal and taken back from the families they had been issued to. She said FIRs will be filed against 116 people – 29 for refusing to return the certificates, and 87 who are missing. The remaining two certificates are showing an error in the system. Tawde added a demand has been made for an SIT to probe the alleged scam, reports Richa Pinto. Birth certs to B’deshis: Mayor says 119 taken back, FIR on 116 | page 5Mumbai: The BMC administration has reviewed 237 cases in which birth certificates were allegedly issued fraudulently in the city, and of these, 119 certificates have been removed from the portal online and taken back from the families to whom they were issued, Mumbai mayor Ritu Tawde said on Wednesday.She made the statement after a review meeting she had convened on the matter with civic officials at the BMC headquarters, nearly a month after she first raised concerns over birth certificates allegedly issued fraudulently to Bangladeshi nationals.The meeting was also attended by ex-BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who has been pursuing the matter with authorities and demanding action. While 119 certifications stand withdrawn, Tawde said, “Of the remaining cases, 29 people have refused to return certificates despite being approached. We have instructed the administration to file FIRs against them. In addition, 87 individuals could not be traced, and we have asked officials to also initiate FIRs in those cases.” This means FIRs are to be filed against 116 individuals. Two other certificates are showing an error in the system, officials said.Tawde said the administration will also examine how removing such individuals from the rolls would be feasible if their documents are found fraudulent. Somaiya, she added, has already been appointed chairman of a nine-member committee of the Maharashtra BJP to monitor the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.The mayor said a demand has also been made to set up a special investigation team to probe the alleged scam.During the meeting, officials also shared data on birth certificate corrections or changes made in 2025, according to which 19,859 applications were received by the medical officer of health. Tawde said the highest number of certificates were from M East (Mankhurd-Govandi), E (Byculla) and L (Kurla) wards, which raises suspicion. “We have sought verification of these 19,859 certificates, and the administration has asked for three months to complete the process,” she said.Somaiya said in L (Kurla) ward alone, 2,698 certificates had come in for correction, which is a big number as many wards had less than 1,000. Similarly, in E ward (Byculla), 2,207 had come in for correction in the last year.Meanwhile, Powai police arrested 5 Bangladeshi women and apprehended a seven-year-old girl from Pune for allegedly residing illegally after crossing the border through Bengal. The women were tracked after police arrested four members of a family from Powai and Navi Mumbai in Jan and Feb.
