Alleged detention, deportation of Indian citizens snowball into major row in Bengal

Kolkata: The alleged detention and deportation of Indian citizens from Bengal is snowballing into a serious concern with the Bengal government receiving fresh complaints about the alleged detention of 227 migrant workers from Bengal in Jharsuguda in Odisha, after being labelled as ‘Bangladeshis’. Meanwhile, two habeas corpus petitions have been filed in the Calcutta High Court against the Delhi Police over the illegal detention and deportation of a couple from Murarai in Birbhum, along with their minor son.

“The Calcutta High Court is scheduled to hear the two habeas corpus petitions filed against the Delhi Police over the illegal detention of a couple from Murarai in Birbhum, along with their minor son. The family later came to know that they had been illegally deported to Bangladesh. Under the leadership of @MamataOfficial, we will fight the anti-Bengali actions of BJP-ruled states until our last breath,” chairman of the Migrant Workers Welfare Board and Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam posted on X.

This comes at a time when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been claiming that Bengali-speaking migrant workers are being labelled as “Bangladeshis” in BJP-ruled states.


The highest number of migrant workers are getting detained in Odisha, sources said. Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant had, in the recent past, written to his Odisha counterpart regarding these detentions.

Speaking to ET, Islam said 227 migrant workers have been detained by Jharsuguda Sadar and other police stations in Odisha on the grounds that they were Bangladeshis. They hail from Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia and South 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal.

“Around 18 people from the Paikar police station jurisdiction in Birbhum have been detained at Brajrajnagar police station of Odisha as they were suspected to be Bangladeshis,” people in the know said.

“This is a fresh round of detentions by the BJP-ruled Odisha government, following the earlier confinement of hundreds of migrant workers from Bengal. What is their fault? That they speak Bengali?” Islam said.

Seeking the intervention of PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Islam posted on X, “Once again, atrocities against Bengali-speaking migrant workers continue in Odisha's Jharsuguda district."

Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra (TMC) has also been vocal about the atrocities on migrant workers from Nadia.