Kolkata: Ukrainian model Daria Molcha (20), who was arrested from Gorakhpur by the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police on April 3 for staying illegally in India, has claimed that she is a friend of a senior Bengal police officer.
SP Abhishek Singh said that while examining her mobile, the police found a photo of hers with the senior cop, who she claims she met in Delhi last year. The police refused to divulge the name of the officer and said that they are still verifying the authenticity of the content found on the seized phone.
So far, the probe has revealed that few of her friends in India had helped her enter the country via Nepal using fake documents like a forged driving license.
Sources said that the photos caused the police to believe that the Ukrainian model may have been used to procure confidential information related to internal security.
When asked, the UP officer said that all angles are being probed but it is too early to draw a conclusion. He said that it is not a crime to take a photo with someone, but the model’s phone has been sent to the forensic lab.
“I don’t know where he (the police officer suspect) is posted these days but our officers are looking into it. We are trying to locate all her contacts in India and if required a team from UP will travel to Kolkata,” he said, adding that a team comprising three investigative officers and four others has been formed for the “sensitive case”.
Sources said that Molcha had first come to India in 2016 and worked with various modelling agencies in Delhi.
“Later her visa was blacklisted due to her suspicious movements and she was forced to leave India. A year later, she returned to India on a tourist visa but was stopped at Delhi airport on account of the ban on her stay in this country. After multiple failed attempts, she entered India via Nepal border with the help of forged documents,” an STF officer said.
Asked for more details he said, “Our probe is underway…Wait for few more days… Baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegi. (When the words will go out…it will spread like a wildfire)”.
Daria was arrested with 18,000 US dollars and three mobile phones on her. She is believed to have entered India illegally in March, 2017. Initially she stayed at her friend Imsham Kasif’s house in Delhi’s New Friends Colony.
On April 2, she left Delhi and checked-in a hotel at Gorakhpur, from where she was arrested. She has been booked under sections of IPC dealing with document forgery, committing fraud and under the Foreigners Act.
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