The British couple of Bangladeshi origin, who breached security at Wagah yesterday, claim they had left only after a go-ahead from a uniformed man at the border checkpost. ‘‘An officer in uniform was sitting at the entry. I don’t know who he was but after he checked our papers, I asked him in which direction Delhi was and he pointed to a road. He also told me that it was 500 km away. Finally I asked him if could leave, and he said ‘go ahead’,’’ said Nasafar Ali Sheikh, who claims to be a well-heeled British hotelier. ‘‘Isme mera kya kusoor hai?,’’ he added. The couple breached the security at Wagah when they sped in their blue Toyota without customs and immigration clearance. Later, they were detained near Jalandhar.Claiming to be a hotelier, Nasafar said he and his wife Sheikh Hasina are on a world tour. ‘‘We crossed over to India after travelling through UK, France, Germany, Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan,’’ he said, adding that from Delhi, they had planned to go to Sylhet where they had relatives.Accusing the Indian authorities of negligence, a harried Nasafar, who has been living in the UK since 1960, asked: ‘‘Whose duty is it to ask me to fulfill the formalities?’’ Sheikh Hasina fumed that they had never faced any such problem in other countries. ‘‘Wherever they saw our red passport, they allowed us to pass through immediately,’’ she said.The millionaire from Manchester — his Rolex watch, expensive camacorder, diamond jewellery and the Rs 45-lakh car a testimony to his wealth — will probably have to face charges of breaching Foreign Act and be imprisoned for almost three months, according to sources. Arrested under Section 14 of the Foreign Act and lodged in the Gharinda Police Station, the couple will be presented in court tomorrow.
