Families of deportees from Delhi grapple with uncertainty in West Bengal

In Murarai's Dorjee Para, a remote settlement in West Bengal's Birbhum district, 60-year-old Bhodu Sheikh sits on his worn-out porch, his gaze vacant and heavy with despair. 

For Bhodu, the pain of aging and illness pales in comparison to the uncertainty surrounding his daughter Sonali, her husband Danesh, and their five-year-old son Sabir.

According to Deccan Herald, the family, who had lived in Delhi for nearly 25 years, was among several Bengali-speaking residents picked up by Delhi Police from Rohini's Sector 26 Bengali Basti last month and deported to Bangladesh on orders from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).

"They lived in Delhi for almost 25 years where Danesh worked as a ragpicker," Bhodu said. "I was born in this village, and so was my daughter. My grandson was born in Delhi."

Bhodu's son, Suraj Sheikh, alleged that the family paid a lawyer ₹30,000 after he promised to secure their release, only to later learn that they had been pushed across the border. "We came home for the Qurbani Eid festival, but now we are too frightened to go back," Suraj's wife, Seema, added.

Suraj showed a Facebook video, which PTI could not independently verify, where Sonali and her family, along with others, pleaded for help with folded hands from an unknown location in Bangladesh.

Another family awaits news

A kilometre away in Fakirpara, 30-year-old Amir Khan shared a similar ordeal. He claimed his sister, Sweety Bibi, and her sons Qurban, 16 and Imam, 6 were deported on 27 June after being detained during the same crackdown.

"My sister worked as a domestic help and had lived in Delhi since she was 12. When police raided, she wasn't home, so they took her elder son. When she went to the station, they arrested her too," Amir said.

Sweety reportedly presented Aadhaar cards to prove their address in Birbhum, but police dismissed them. She lost Qurban's birth certificate in a fire that gutted her Delhi shanty days before the raids, Amir added, showing Imam's state-issued birth document stating he was born at Murarai Rural Hospital in January 2020.

In the same Facebook video, Sweety alleged police beat them and coerced them into biometric tests before deporting them. "We haven't heard from them for nearly a month now. We have no idea where they are and how they are living in an unknown land," said Sweety's mother, Mahida Bibi.

Political reaction and legal battle

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, a local leader, vowed to fight the issue "both politically and legally." He shared images on X of land records he claimed belonged to the women's families, dating back to the 1950s and 1970s.

"Anyone in the BJP who can actually read them will understand that these women are far more Indian than the loudmouth BJP touts slandering them," Islam wrote.

He confirmed legal challenges are pending in Calcutta and Delhi High Courts and warned the matter could reach the Supreme Court if needed. Islam also alleged that not only Muslims but also Bengali-speaking backward class Hindus such as Matuas and Rajbanshis were facing similar harassment.

Crackdown extends to migrant workers

In Kahinagar, near the Jharkhand border, 16-year-old Ataul Sheikh and his neighbour Marjan, 17, recounted being detained at an Odisha government facility earlier this month.

"We had gone to Jharsuguda to work as masons. On 8 July, police came at 1 am We were taken to a local station, then confined at a college hostel for four days," Ataul said, adding his brother was also held.

Marjan, detained two days longer, claimed he saw around 250 Bengali-speaking migrants in the camp. 

"Do only Bangladeshis speak Bengali? Doesn't a significant number of Indians speak that language?" asked Chandni Bibi, Marjan's sister-in-law. 

"By that logic, everyone in Kolkata should be arrested. It seems we must learn to speak English now," she said.