Kolkata, Oct. 1 -- Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam said four persons from Murshidabad's Samserganj continue to remain in custody in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, since September 4, "only because of suspicion" that they are Bangladeshi nationals.
In a post, Islam said efforts to secure their release had failed and the matter was subsequently taken to court. He alleged that the four were being held because their names were under adjudication during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and questioned the basis for branding them as Bangladeshi nationals.
According to a petition before the Calcutta High Court, 23 persons from Murshidabad, who went to Chattisgarh in search of a job, were taken into custody by Chhattisgarh Police on September 4 during an identification and verification exercise. 19 of them were subsequently released.
The petitioner, Murshidabad resident Mostakim Sk, was among the 23 detained. He was released on September 25 after police found that his name had not been deleted from the electoral roll.
However, his petition challenges the deletion of his family members' names during the SIR and argues that deletion from an electoral roll does not constitute a criminal offence or, by itself, provide a lawful basis for arrest or continued detention.
Islam expressed concern over the alleged targeting of poor migrant workers, particularly those from minority communities, and said people from economically-vulnerable families suffer the most in such cases. He said he had full trust in the judiciary and hoped the four persons would soon return to their loved ones.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.