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

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Nineteen migrant workers from West Bengal who were detained in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals have been released on Friday (September 18, 2026). | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Nineteen migrant workers from West Bengal who were detained in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals have been released on Friday (September 18, 2026).

These workers are mostly residents of Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Sahabad areas. They went to Chhattisgarh in search of work, where they have also been selling goods house-to-house in the Bilaspur area.

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.

Police said the accused were summoned to the police station multiple times for document verification. But they did not appear.

However, their family members alleged that the police detained them illegally late at night despite possessing all the documents, including Voter cards, Aadhaar cards and PAN cards, that are required as proof of Indian citizenship.

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.

Nineteen out of 23 of these labourers have been released on Friday (September 18, 2026) after the local civil court’s order.

Reacting to the matter, Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP, Samirul Islam, said it is part of a practice of harassing Bengali-speaking people on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.

“It has been continuing for years. Now speaking Bengali outside our State seems to be tantamount to having to prove one’s citizenship. We should not forget that Bengali is our mother tongue and has been recognised as a classical language by none other than the Union Government of India,” he said on X, hoping that the other four will also be released soon.

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