Kolkata: On the evening of 9 June 2025, construction workers Mehebub Sk and Shamim Khan, both in their 30s, freshly showered after a day of work, went for a cup of tea to the tea-stall near the bus stand for route number 15, in Thane district’s Mira Road neighbourhood in the western state of Maharashtra.
Migrant workers from Murshidabad district in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, the two live at a construction site located a few hundred metres from the bus stand. A late evening cup of milky tea was a routine they had established over the previous four months.
That evening, they were chatting in their mother tongue, Bengali, with some other workers, when, around 8.30 pm, policemen in plain clothes approached them.
Asked to show their identity documents, Mehebub Sk and Shamim Khan produced their Aadhaar card (issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India); their permanent account number (PAN), a card with an alphanumeric code issued to tax-payers by the income-tax department; and voter identification cards issued by the Election Commission of India. The policemen were unsatisfied and told the men the cards were fakes.
The policemen took the duo to the Kanakia outpost of Mira Road police station, where several other Bengali-speaking men were already detained.
Across Maharashtra, raids to round up Bangladeshi immigrants living in India without legal documents had been underway in various cities over the previous few days. The drive was in line with intensified operations to flush out illegal immigrants that began in multiple states ruled by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the 22 April terror attack in Pahalgam, in India’s Jammu & Kashmir.
Illegal immigration from Bangladesh to India includes refugees and economic migrants, and the government in 2016 pegged their numbers at 20 million. India has currently asked Bangladeshi authorities to verify the nationality of about 2,300 migrants in India to enable their deportation.
In May 2025, Article 14 reported how these drives forced many Bengali-speaking Muslims from West Bengal to face days in detention. Several Bangladeshi nationals were also identified during these drives, many of them pushed back into Bangladesh.
“Push-back” is officialese for an informal process of deportation, in which India’s Border Security Force (BSF) takes deportees along some unguarded stretch of the border and forces them, often at gunpoint, to cross over into Bangladesh.
Indian Muslims from marginalised and working class backgrounds have been caught in the ongoing clampdown. The forced push-backs—without cases filed against them, without production before a magistrate and with no official hearing regarding their citizenship—bypass due process (see here, here) besides vilifying Bengali-speaking Muslims as infiltrators (see here, here).
While detaining suspected Bangladeshis, police teams from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh had recently visited West Bengal to verify the suspects’ claims of citizenship. The Maharashtra police cut the process shorter.
The Trial
Early on 10 June, policemen from the Nallasopara police station in Palghar, a district adjoining Thane, picked up Mustafa Kamal Sheikh, Nazimuddin Mondal and Minarul Sheikh from their rented residence.
Mustafa Kamal Sheikh told Article 14 that the raiding policemen first asked for his phone. The moment they found a Bangladeshi phone number saved in his list of contacts, they held him to be a Bangladeshi.
Around 2 am on 10 June, the Naya Nagar police in Thane’s Mira Road area picked up Fazer Mandal and his wife Taslima during a raid at their rented home. Naya Nagar is a heavily Muslim-dominated locality.
All these police stations operate under the Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar police commissionerate whose jurisdiction starts from the north-western edge of Mumbai city.
Article 14 emailed the police commissioner of Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar, asking for the basis on which they decided that the seven persons merited deportation to Bangladesh. He forwarded the email to the deputy commissioner of police (crime), who replied, “This pertains to the Special Branch.” Our email to the police inspector of the special branch did not elicit a response.
While the Mandal couple was kept at a makeshift detention centre along with some others, the five others remained in the custody of Mira Road police station, where further interrogation began. Everyone’s mobile phones were ‘seized’ for inspection. Those who had Bangladeshi phone numbers saved were prime suspects, the men told Article 14.
The next day, 11 June, the detainees at Mira Road police station were asked to sing Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem.
“I couldn’t sing the full song,” Mehebub Sk said. “I am an illiterate person. I remembered some of it but fumbled all the more as I panicked seeing so many policemen surrounding me.”
Shamim Khan had never been taught the anthem. “I’ve never been to school,” he said. “I don’t remember the full national anthem.”
Their inability to sing the national anthem strengthened the police suspicion that the men were not Indians. Both alleged that policemen abused them with choice expletives, calling them “Mamata Banerjee’s illegal voters”.
Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister, heads the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, one of India’s parties opposed to the BJP, which is in power in Maharashtra.
On 13 June, all seven detainees, along with some Bangladeshi nationals, were taken to a hospital for medical examinations and then handed over to the BSF, which guards India’s border with Bangladesh. The BSF took them to the Pune airport, under heavy security.
Mehebub Sk, Minarul Sekh and Nazimuddin Mondal alleged that in Pune, all their documents were torn and thrown into a dustbin. Security forces gave them two puris (a deep-fried Indian bread) each to eat. Then they were handcuffed and taken to the plane.
Their phones were never returned. Mehebub Sk had bought his Samsung smartphone on an equated monthly installment plan two years ago for Rs 19,500. He had finished paying the installments. “They took away the phone and never returned it despite me pleading repeatedly,” he said.
At the airport, the men said, security forces also took away their belts and headphones.
The Tribulations
All seven were brought to West Bengal and handed over to the BSF in Siliguri on the afternoon of 13 June. In the evening, they were loaded into different prison vans.
Mehebub Sk and Shamim Khan were taken to the Bangladesh border in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district, on the north-eastern edge of the state. Fazer and Taslima Mandal were taken to the Bangladesh border in Dakshin Dinajpur district; Minarul Sekh, Nazimuddin Mondal and Mustafa Kamal to Cooch Behar district’s border with Bangladesh, also in northern West Bengal.
Mehebub Sk alleged that he had Rs 9,000 with him when he was handed over to the BSF in West Bengal. However, while being transported in a prison van from the BSF camp to the border, the personnel guarding them took all the cash they had on them. Mehebub Sk only managed to keep one Rs 500-currency note hidden.
The deportees were dropped at a border outpost. There, BSF personnel repeatedly asked them for their address in Bangladesh. “Every time we insisted that we are Indians, they beat us black and blue,” said Shamim Khan.
Finally, they were pushed out of India in the dead of night. At that time, the remaining Rs 500 was also taken away, Mehebub Sk alleged. They duo landed in the ‘no-man’s land’ between India and Bangladesh—with no money, phone or identity documents; shocked, hungry and exhausted.
Fazer and Taslima Mandal were brought to the Bangladesh border around 8 pm on 13 June. There were 25 in all, many of them Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally entered India. The BSF pushed all of them to the other side of the border.
“The BSF personnel held us at gunpoint. We had to cross the border,” said Fazer Mandal. “On the other side, the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) caught all of us.”
Mandal said the BGB personnel allowed the genuine Bangladeshis to enter, but kept him and others who were not Bangladeshis in ‘no-man’s land’. He said, however, that the BGB treated them well, gave them food and helped them connect with their families in India.
Nazimuddin Mondal, Minarul Sekh and Mustafa Kamal Sheikh were pushed into Bangladesh the same day through the border in Cooch Behar district, in the dead of night. They alleged that some BSF personnel at the border brutally assaulted them when they refused to leave India.
After being pushed out, they stayed in a forested tract in the no-man’s land all through the next day, trying to evade the BGB.
The Process
According to Asif Faruk, secretary of the West Bengal-based Parijayi Shramik Aikya Mancha (migrant workers’ unity forum), Mehebub Sk had informed his family on 10 June about his detention, asking for more documents to be sent. The family contacted Faruk’s organisation, which started coordinating with the Maharashtra police regarding verification of identities.
“His PAN, Aadhaar, Voter ID, his and his brother’s names on the voter list, tax certificate from the Mahisasthali village gram panchayat for land holdings, his ration card and a family tree certified by the panchayat pradhan (elected chief of the village local body) were sent to Maharashtra police,” Faruk told Article 14. The organisation also kept the West Bengal police informed.
However, on 13 June, they suddenly got to know that Mehebub Sk and Shamim Khan had been handed over to the BSF in Siliguri for deportation. The following morning, they learnt that the men had already been pushed out. Mehebub Sk and Shamim Khan, with the help of some locals in Bangladesh, had managed to inform their families about having been pushed out and their current location.
Fazer Mandal’s father, Tahajul, told Article 14 that the Naya Nagar police had telephoned him on 10 June, asking for more documents to be sent. Accordingly, the family sent papers showing his polio vaccination as an infant, his Aadhaar and voter ID cards and his birth certificate.
Yet, the BSF pushed all of them out on 13 June, without informing the families.
Tahajul Mandal received a call from the BGB on the night of 13 June, informing him that his son and daughter-in-law had been pushed into Bangladesh and were in their custody.
Meanwhile, on 14 June afternoon, some local journalists in Bangladesh recorded a video of Minarul Sekh, Nazimuddin Mondal and Mustafa Kamal Sheikh narrating their ordeal, while seated in a field in ‘no-man’s land’.
The men also showed journalists bruises on their bodies—marks from the beating they had received from BSF personnel at the border. Nazimuddin Mandal broke into tears on camera as he recalled what they went through.
The video went viral in Murshidabad and other West Bengal districts through messaging services, including WhatsApp.
The Return
As reports of these deportations poured in, West Bengal police swung into action.
“Under instructions from chief minister Banerjee for their immediate rescue, the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board (WBMWWB) coordinated with the police and presented all the necessary documents to the BSF,” said Samirul Islam, a TMC Rajya Sabha member of Parliament. Islam also heads the WBMWWB.
In a Facebook post on 15 June evening, Murshidabad district police said that upon receiving information about the deportations, they immediately conducted local enquiries. After verification, relevant documents and proof of citizenship were submitted to the BSF.
After the police “conducted prolong coordination with BSF (sic),” the latter reportedly held “an urgent flag meeting with the BGB” and finally brought Minarul Sekh, Nazimuddin Mandal and Mustafa Kamal Sheikh back from Bangladesh.
The BSF then handed them over to the district police on 15 June evening. The district police claimed their “swift action” in rescuing the men was “a big success.”
Mehebub Sk and Shamim Khan did not fall into the BGB’s hands but met some local residents in Bangladesh who helped them connect with their families on the phone. In the wee hours of 15 June, with the help of people from Bangladesh, they managed to sneak back into India.
“We went straight to Uttar Dinajpur’s Raiganj police station, where we surrendered,” said Mehebub Sk.
On 16 June, police from Murshidabad district went to Cooch Behar and Uttar Dinajpur districts with all documents related to their nationality and brought them back to their home.
Fazer and Taslima Mandal spent 14 and 15 June roaming in the no-man’s land between the two borders. The BSF and the BGB held a flag meeting on 16 June at the Koyladangi border crossing, where the BGB handed them over to the BSF, who in turn handed them over to West Bengal police at Raiganj police station.
They returned home on 17 June.
“Tell me, who would have been responsible had the BGB fired at my son and daughter-in-law for trespassing into their country?” Tahajul Mandal asked.
The Violations
Islam, the TMC Rajya Sabha MP, criticised the Maharashtra police for keeping the West Bengal government in the dark.
“It’s strange and unacceptable that West Bengal residents were branded as foreigners without inquiring with the state government about their identity,” he said. “How is that even possible?”
The union ministry of home affairs had said in July 2014 that people arrested or intercepted for illegally entering India from Bangladesh are handed over, after completion of legal action at the border to Bangladeshi officials who ensure that the repatriated persons are sent home.
The MHA said that while the union government is vested with powers to deport a foreign national illegally staying in the country under section 3(2) (c) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, these powers to identify and deport illegally staying Bangladeshi nationals have also been delegated to the state governments and union territory administrations.
On 4 March 2020, union minister of state for home affairs, Nityananda Rai, told the Rajya Sabha that apart from sections 3(2)(e) and 3(2)(c) of the Foreigners Act, section 5 of The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 allows the union government to order the removal of any foreigner from India who enters India without passport and visa.
“Illegal foreigners whose nationality needs to be verified have to await deportation,” Rai said. Till their nationality is verified and travel documents are issued by the country concerned, such foreigners “may have to be detained in a holding/detention centre”.
The West Bengal state home department’s website says that after illegal immigrants have completed their sentence, their personal particulars are forwarded for verification/confirmation of nationality to the embassy/consulate/high commission/deputy high commission of the country from which the accused foreigner is reported to have infiltrated into India.
After receiving the nationality confirmation, the foreigner is released from the correctional home and repatriated/deported to his/her home country, “as per standard operating procedure (SOP)”, through the local superintendent of police, district intelligence branch and BSF.
In the case of these seven deported Indians, none was arrested under any legal provision. They were not produced in a court or given the opportunity to defend themselves through a lawyer. The Maharashtra police neither visited their villages, nor coordinated with the state government to verify their nationality.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the Maharashtra government.
“On the one hand, you are branding Indians as Bangladeshis for the language they speak, and on the other, you are depriving these people, who hold voter ID, PAN and Aadhaar cards, of the right to earn their livelihood in your states,” she said, addressing the state assembly on 16 June.
In May, the MHA issued told all states to complete identity verification of suspected foreigners within 30 days.
Faruk pointed out that the Maharashtra police bypassed the West Bengal police in the verification process and also skipped any visit for physical verification.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Thakur called the entire episode unlawful. “Which law allows their deportation without being produced in a court? The union government must specify,” she told Article 14.
While the deported migrant workers try to recover from the trauma, they said another question continues to worry workers—of which document they must carry as fool-proof evidence of their citizenship.
The police in Mira Road were insistent on getting birth certificates, or at least school leaving certificates, Mehebub Sk said.
On 25 May, Faruk in a right to information inquiry, asked the MHA how many documents any inter-state migrant worker should carry to prove his or her citizenship and how many migrant workers from West Bengal have been arrested in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh until now, and why.
In response, the MHA said the information he sought was “basically clarificatory in nature, which is not under the purview of RTI Act, 2005”.
They suggested consulting the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and rules made under it. The MHA also denied having any information on the number of arrests in those states and advised the applicant to approach the states concerned.
“We need an indisputable ID card,” said Tahajul Mandal, himself a migrant worker.
“Myself, my son, my daughter-in-law—we’ll have to travel in search of work,” he said. “Let the government announce one fool-proof document and we’ll carry it.”
(Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is a Kolkata-based author and independent journalist, who writes on politics, history, human rights, culture, environment and climate change.)
Get exclusive access to new databases, expert analyses, weekly newsletters, book excerpts and new ideas on democracy, law and society in India. Subscribe to Article 14.