After the Calcutta High Court’s intervention, Chhattisgarh Police have released the four migrant workers from West Bengal, who had been detained for over a month on the suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.
It happened suddenly when we lost our hope. The Supreme Court has formed the tribunal to decide on appeals by those whose names have been deleted from the electoral rolls. The court asked how the FRRO could make a decision on their citizenship. “We were so surprised. We finished out dinner and went to the security personnel at the gate to mark our attendance. The higher authority ordered them to release us immediately. They were initially taken to the Bilaspur Police Superintendent’s office, from where they were moved to a holding centre in Raipur for illegal immigrants. The police, during the interrogation, questioned their nationality based on the deletion of their names in the special intensive revision (SIR). Meanwhile the Chhattisgarh Police sought a verification report from the Murshidabad District administration which was delayed.
On Monday (October 5, 2026), the Calcutta HC questioned the Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO), who is also the Superintendent of Police, Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur, over the authority’s move to determine the citizenship of four men from Murshidabad while their appeals against deletion of their names from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) are pending before the appellate tribunal. On September 4, Chhattisgarh police detained at least 23 of them from their residences in Chunchiapara-Ganesh Nagar under Sirgiti police station on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. Later, 19 out of 23 of these labourers have been released on September 18, 2026 after the local civil court’s order while these four continued to be at the detention centre. To be sure, the rest of the 19 found their names back to the voter list after the adjudication process in April while these four were left off.
As a result, the family members were compelled to approach the Calcutta High Court on September 30.
It asked the Election Commission whether it was “playing” with the persons. But they suddenly told us that we don’t need to do it anymore. The Police also wrote it in the order copy that we are Indians, not Bangladeshis,” said Safikul over a phone call.
Now, the night before the next hearing of the case on Thursday (October 8, 2026), all four of them — Sabir Sheikh (42), Safikul Islam (39), Nasiruddin Sheikh (35), and Laltu Sheikh (28) — have been released from the holding centre at around 9 pm on Wednesday (October 7, 2026).
