Kolkata, Oct. 8 -- After spending over a month in a detention centre, four Murshidabad residents finally breathed free on Thursday following the intervention of the Calcutta High Court. They were the last of the four among 23 migrant workers detained in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.
Safikul Islam, one of those detained, told Millennium Post: "We were tired of the process and had almost lost hope. After dinner on Wednesday, when we were preparing to sleep, a camp official told us that we could leave.
We were so frightened that we even doubted whether we were actually being released.
We initially refused to step out at night, but the official told us they had received orders and we had to leave immediately."
The 23 workers, mostly from Murshidabad's Samserganj and Sahabad areas, had travelled to Chhattisgarh for work and were selling goods door-to-door in Bilaspur. On September 4, Chhattisgarh Police detained them from their residences in Chunchiapara-Ganesh Nagar under Sirgiti police station on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.
Sabir Sheikh, another detainee, said they were initially called to produce their identity documents. "We were told to come and show our documents. We had all the legal papers with us. But after being taken to one police station and then another, we were eventually detained and shifted to a holding centre in Raipur. If we were Bangladeshi nationals, why would we have gone there ourselves after being called to show our documents?" he questioned. 19 of the 23 workers were released on September 18 following a local civil court order. The four-Sabir Sheikh (42), Safikul Islam (39), Nasiruddin Sheikh (35) and Laltu Sheikh (28)-remained detained as their names were still missing from the electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bengal. The other 19 had their names restored after the April adjudication process.
The four have approached the appellate tribunal seeking restoration of their names, but their pleas remain pending.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh authorities sought verification from the Murshidabad district magistrate. With the documents reportedly not reaching the Chhattisgarh administration, the families approached the Calcutta High Court, arguing that the detention was unjustified while their electoral appeals were pending.
On Thursday the matter again came up before the bench of Justice Krishna Rao, who questioned whether the detainees were released after the court called for a report. The Judge asked whether the petitioner would withdraw the matter. It was, however, submitted that the prayer to expedite the hearing of the SIR appeals of these four persons are yet to be addressed by the Court. The next hearing is on Monday.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.