Bengal again: Muslim man and three sons picked up from home. Police say they have been ‘deported’

Four members of a Bengali Muslim family have been missing for about 40 days after the police picked them up from their home in Murshidabad, accusing them of being undocumented Bangladeshi migrants, their family member told Scroll on Thursday.

The police confirmed to Scroll that the four men were handed over to the Border Security Force and claimed that they had been sent to Bangladesh.

Dablu Sheikh, 60, and his three sons – 29-year-old Kayem Sheikh, 20-year-old Rajaul Sheikh and 16-year-old Asmaul Sheikh – were picked up by plain-clothes police personnel from their home in Baliaghati village, said his wife, Jahanara Bibi.

This was done either on the night of August 13 or August 14, “although the exact date could not be recalled by Dablu Sheikh’s wife”, stated human rights group Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha.

Dablu Sheikh and Kayem Sheikh had featured on the electoral rolls of West Bengal after the special intensive revision exercise and voted in the 2026 Assembly elections. Scroll has verified their names in the electoral roll.

Dablu Sheikh’s father, Sk Samjani, was also a voter in the Suti Assembly constituency in 1966 and 1995.

Bibi said that the police have not given her any information about the whereabouts of her husband and sons since they were picked up....

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