The Calcutta High Court has directed that a woman and her two minor daughters, detained on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals, must not be pushed back to Bangladesh for the time being.
It also directed the authorities to produce them before a magistrate within 24 hours, register specific cases against them in accordance with the law, and provide them with an opportunity to defend themselves.
The order assumes significance amid allegations that Bengali-speaking Muslims in different districts of West Bengal are being detained and branded as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants despite claiming to be Indian citizens.
Complaints of alleged harassment and attempts to push back residents have surfaced from Cooch Behar, Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, and several other districts.
Detained at border
This case came before a division bench comprising Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Justice Arjun Ray Mukherjee during the Puja vacation.
The petition was filed by Lebu Mia, a 30-year-old resident of Cooch Behar, who approached the High Court seeking protection for his wife and two minor daughters from being sent to Bangladesh.
During the hearing, advocate Anindya Ghosh, appearing for Lebu Mia, informed the court that his client’s wife and two children were travelling to Bangladesh through the Changrabandha border in Cooch Behar on 21 October.
They were carrying Indian passports and visas. The couple’s two minor children were born at a hospital in Cooch Behar, and their birth certificates were also available.
Despite possessing these documents, the immigration authorities allegedly detained them on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals and sent them to the “Apon Ghar” detention centre run by the Dinhata Municipality on the same day.
However, the family came to know about their detention only seven days later, on October 28.
The petitioner’s lawyer further alleged that the woman and her children had been kept in detention without any case being registered against them. They had not even been produced before a magistrate.
Instead, the family was repeatedly informed that they would be pushed back to Bangladesh.
Dispute over documents
Representing the state government, its counsel told the court that Lebu Mia’s wife was a Bangladeshi national who had married him.
Justice Arjun Ray Mukherjee questioned the state’s lawyer about the documents submitted before the court, asking whether the passport and visa produced by the petitioner’s wife were forged.
The state’s counsel replied that preliminary investigations suggested that the documents were fake and that the detained persons were Bangladeshi nationals.
In response, the petitioner’s lawyer maintained that Lebu Mia’s wife was an Indian citizen, adding that the couple had married according to Islamic customs and possessed a marriage certificate.
Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya then questioned the state counsel as to why no case had been registered against the detained woman and her children despite their continued detention. The state’s lawyer reportedly failed to provide a satisfactory answer.
Court directions
After hearing both sides, the division bench directed that the woman and her two children must not be pushed back to Bangladesh under any circumstances at this stage.
The court ordered that they be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours and that appropriate legal proceedings be initiated against them, emphasising that they must be given a proper opportunity to defend themselves.
It further directed the state government to submit a report on the matter before the regular bench after the Puja vacation. The next course of action will be decided after examining the report.
It may be recalled that in June last year, Sonali Bibi, a resident of Darzipara in the Paikar police station area of Murarai in Birbhum district, was allegedly pushed back to Bangladesh by Delhi police through the Assam border.
After a year-long legal battle, she eventually managed to return to India.
The latest High Court intervention has once again brought the issue of alleged wrongful detention and pushbacks of Indian residents on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals into focus.
