Kolkata, Aug 7 (PTI) Amid a charged political environment of back-to-back allegations of persecution of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states, father of a resident of Malda district in West
Bengal moved the Calcutta High Court on Thursday challenging the Centre’s decision to deport his son to Bangladesh after branding him an “illegal immigrant”.
Jiyem Sheikh, father of 19-year old Amir Sheikh, alleged that his son was first unlawfully detained by the state police in Rajasthan, where he had travelled a few months ago in search of work, and later pushed to Bangladesh.
Sheikh moved a habeas corpus petition before the high court seeking judicial intervention to bring his son back. Habeas corpus is a legal writ requiring a person held in custody to be brought before a court to decide the legality of their detention.
The family of the deported migrant from the Jalalpur village under Kaliachawk police station in Malda claimed that Amir was held in a detention camp by the Rajasthan Police for nearly two months despite him showing the authorities his Aadhaar Card and birth certificate as proof of Indian citizenship.
The family, claiming to have lived in Malda for generations, alleged that they were shocked to learn that he had been sent across the border to Bangladesh from a social media clip in late July.
“Amir Sk… was unlawfully detained by the Rajasthan Police, governed by the BJP, and deported to Bangladesh. He is neither a Rohingya nor a Bangladeshi national. Despite being a Bengali-speaking Indian citizen, he was forcibly sent across the border. His family holds land records dating back to the pre-Independence era,” wrote Samirul Islam, chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board and TMC Rajya Sabha MP, on his X handle.
The legal move from Amir’s aggrieved family came in the wake of similar petitions filed in the high court by two families in the Paikar area of Murarai in Birbhum district.
At least six migrant members belonging to two families, which included two women – Sonali Bibi and Sweety Bibi – and three minor children, aged between 5 and 16, were allegedly deported to the neighbouring country after they were detained by Delhi Police from the Bengali Basti in Sector 26, Rohini, in June.
Allegations of forcible deportations on suspicion of illegal immigration by the Bengali-speaking migrant workforce have also been reported from states like Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh in the recent past.
In June, seven residents of West Bengal were detained in Mumbai and later pushed into Bangladesh by the BSF. Following intervention by the West Bengal government, four youths from Murshidabad, one from Purba Bardhaman, and a husband-wife couple from North 24 Parganas were brought back to India. PTI SMY NN
