‘Illegal, arbitrary’: Why experts say detention regime in Bengal has fewer safeguards than Assam

Asarul Sheikh was returning from Kerala in the last week of August when he was stopped by the police from a railway station close to his home in Bengal’s Murshidabad district.

The police accused the migrant worker of being a Bangladeshi and took him to the Lalgola detention centre 15 km away, Sheikh’s niece Rojina Khatun said.

As Scroll reported, the West Bengal police have picked up at least nine Muslim men and two children since June in midnight raids and accused them of being Bangladeshis.

The police have not cited the basis on which they acted against the people, nor did they file any official complaint or a first information report. The alleged undocumented foreigners were not given any opportunity to contest the police allegations and prove their citizenship. “It has been over 20 days since Asarul was detained, but the police have not given us any documents or notice which spell out why they suspect he is a Bangladeshi,” Khatun told Scroll.

Sheikh’s niece said he was included as a legitimate voter in the recent special intensive revision of electoral rolls carried out in West Bengal – and voted in the recent Assembly elections. “But they refused to check our documents,” she said. Four other men detained since...

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