Detained on suspicion of being Bangladeshi, 19 Bengal workers released from Chhattisgarh

On September 18, 2026, nineteen migrant workers from West Bengal were released in Chhattisgarh after being detained on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. These workers, primarily from Murshidabad's Samserganj and Sahabad areas, had traveled to Chhattisgarh in search of employment. They had also been engaging in door-to-door sales of goods in the Bilaspur area.

On September 4, Chhattisgarh police apprehended at least 23 of these migrants from their residences in Chunchiapara-Ganesh Nagar, under the jurisdiction of the Sirgiti police station, on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. The police claimed that the suspects were summoned to the police station multiple times for document verification, but they failed to appear.

However, family members of the detained workers alleged that the police had detained them illegally during the night, despite possessing all the necessary documents, including Voter cards, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards, which serve as proof of Indian citizenship. The detainees were initially taken to the Bilaspur Police Superintendent's office, before being moved to a holding center in Raipur for individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Out of the 23 detained workers, nineteen were released on Friday after a local civil court issued an order in their favor. Responding to the incident, Samirul Islam, a Trinamool Congress's Rajya Sabha MP, expressed concern over the practice of harassing Bengali-speaking people on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. He noted that this issue had been ongoing for years, stating that speaking Bengali outside one's state should not be equated with the need to prove one's citizenship.

Islam emphasized the importance of Bengali as a mother tongue and its recent recognition as a classical language by the Indian government, urging that such discrimination should not continue.