Kolkata: Two habeas corpus petitions have been filed in the Calcutta High Court by relatives of migrant labourers from West Bengal detained by authorities in Odisha on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.
This was informed by Congress MP Samirul Islam who is also the chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board. The Rajya Sabha member has alleged that several migrant labourers from West Bengal have been detained in Odisha without following due legal process.
The chief secretaries of West Bengal and Odisha, district magistrate of the Murshidabad district in West Bengal, SP of the Jagatsinghpur district in Odisha and OC of Balikuda police station have been made parties in the two petitions.
A habeas corpus petition is a legal remedy seeking direction to produce a person who is missing or has been illegally detained. According to Islam, no custody memos regarding the alleged arrests of the migrant labourers were issued by the police in Odisha in violation of the law.
West Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant had on Thursday written to his Odisha counterpart Manoj Ahuja, urging him to put an end to “harassment” of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in certain parts of the state.
Pant, in the letter, said the migrant workers are being “targeted because they speak Bengali, which is their mother tongue and “unjustly labelled as Bangladeshis”.
“We are receiving reports of such individuals being detained without due legal process in regions around Paradip and across coastal districts such as Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Malkangiri, Balasore and Cuttack. What is even more concerning is that, even when these persons produce valid identity documents, their claims are being dismissed,” Pant said in the letter.
The labourers include daily wage earners, rickshaw pullers and domestic workers.
One of the petitions was filed by Nasima Mondal, mother of Rakhibul Islam Mondal from Hariharpara in Murshidabad. Nasima has claimed that her son, working as a labourer in Jagatsinghpur, was detained beyond 24 hours without being produced before a court of law.
She has further claimed that her son has all documents, including Aadhaar Card, Voter ID and a ration card, but these were not taken into consideration by the authorities in Odisha. She has sought judicial intervention under Article 226 of the Constitution.
The second petition has been filed by Rajjak Sk of Hariharpara, who claimed that his son Sainur Islam was arrested on June 30 but has not been given any legal support to seek bail.
