AGRA/DEHRADUN/HARIDWAR: As many as 90 Bangladeshi nationals, including 22 children, were taken into custody in Mathura district for allegedly staying in India illegally. The group was apprehended from brickyards in Khajpur village under Naujheel police station limits in the temple town. Separately, Uttarakhand police also arrested two foreign nationals — a US citizen and a Bangladeshi woman — during a verification drive.Acting on a tip-off received Friday, joint teams from Mathura’s Naujheel police station and the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) conducted a raid and detained 37 men, 31 women, and 22 children. During the operation, police also seized 31 mobile phones, two Aadhaar cards, four photocopies of Aadhaar cards, and one PAN card.A senior Mathura police official involved in the probe told TOI, “During questioning, they told us they had arrived 10 to 15 years ago, crossing porous borders. After that, they moved around in Delhi, Haryana, Bihar etc. They were in Mathura for nearly 3–4 months, while some arrived 15–20 days ago in the city. We’ve started questioning the contractors and owners of the brick yards where they were working.” He added that some of the children are as young as two to three months.Mathura SSP Shlok Kumar said, “A case has been filed under Section 14 of Foreigners Act, 1946 and BNS Sections 318(4) (cheating), 338 (forgery), 336 (altering documents), 340(2) (forged document or electronic record as genuine, knowing it to be forged). The Aadhaar cards seized from them are from UP’s Pratapgarh and other districts. Central agencies have also been informed about this, and we will move ahead in the direction of deporting them lawfully.”Meanwhile, in Uttarakhand, police arrested a US national from Pithoragarh on April 30 and a Bangladeshi woman from Haridwar on Thursday. Both were found to be residing in the state without valid documents.