Four Bengal workers, detained on Bangladeshi suspicion, released from Chhattisgarh

Four migrant workers from West Bengal’s Murshidabad, who were detained and kept at a holding centre in Chhattisgarh for over a month on suspicion of being Bangladeshis, have been released on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) night. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

After the Calcutta High Court’s intervention, Chhattisgarh Police have released the four migrant workers from West Bengal, who had been detained for over a month on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.

On Monday (October 5, 2026), the Calcutta HC questioned the Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO), who is also the Superintendent of Police, Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur, over the authority’s move to determine the citizenship of four men from Murshidabad while their appeals against deletion of their names from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) are pending before the appellate tribunal.

It also rapped the Chhattisgarh State for its ‘double standard’. It said that the situation was ‘contradictory’. “If the authorities were saying that some persons were not Indian citizens, then what would the appellate authority (tribunal) do?” questioned Justice Krishna Rao.

It asked the Election Commission whether it was “playing” with the persons. The Supreme Court has formed the tribunal to decide on appeals by those whose names have been deleted from the electoral rolls. The court asked how the FRRO could make a decision on their citizenship.

Now, the night before the next hearing of the case on Thursday (October 8, 2026), all four of them- Sabir Sheikh (42), Safikul Islam (39), Nasiruddin Sheikh (35), and Laltu Sheikh (28)- have been released from the holding centre at around 9 pm on Wednesday (October 7, 2026).

“We were so surprised. It happened suddenly when we lost our hope. We finished out dinner and went to the security personnel at the gate to mark our attendance. But they suddenly told us that we don’t need to do it anymore. The higher authority ordered them to release us immediately. The Police also wrote it in the order copy that we are Indians, not Bangladeshis,” said Safikul over a phone call.

These four men were part of a group of 23 such migrant workers- mostly from Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Sahabad areas, went to Chhattisgarh in search of work, where they have also been selling goods house-to-house in the Bilaspur area.

On September 4, Chhattisgarh police detained at least 23 of them from their residences in Chunchiapara-Ganesh Nagar under Sirgiti police station on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. They were initially taken to the Bilaspur Police Superintendent’s office, from where they were moved to a holding centre in Raipur for illegal immigrants.

Later, 19 out of 23 of these labourers have been released on September 18, 2026 after the local civil court’s order while these four continued to be at the detention centre. The police, in the court, questioned their nationality based on the deletion of their names in the special intensive revision (SIR). To be sure, the rest of the 19 found their names back to the voter list after the adjudication process in April while these four were left off.

They have now appealed before the tribunal seeking restoration of their names. However, the applications are still pending.

Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh administration had sought a verification report from the Murshidabad district magistrate, but the report was reportedly not provided by the West Bengal administration. As a result, the families were compelled to approach the Calcutta High Court.

The petitioners said that they were detained even when their appeals against the deletion of their names from the electoral rolls are pending before the tribunal. Therefore, the actions taken by the authorities are “wholly arbitrary, illegal, and unsustainable in law”. They have temporarily visited Chhattisgarh for work but have ‘permanent roots’ in West Bengal.

Reacting to the development, the Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Samirul Islam, urged the bureaucrats not to delay in such verification reports of the citizens sought by another administration. He asked them to execute it with a sense of responsibility to protect the rights and interests of every citizen without any ‘political considerations’.