By Mirza Mosaraf Hossain, TwoCircles.net
Nearly a month after the arrest of four people in Mumbai for being ‘illegal Bangladeshis’, a team of two men from the Criminal Investigation Department of Mumbai and Kalwa Police Station of Thane district, along with other 14 East Burdwan district administration visited Kalinagar village in the district to verify the claims that the arrested people are Indians. The C.I.D Officer met the neighbours of two of the four arrested workers and verified their documents from the local school panchayat and ration shop. The CID team are yet to meet the village of the other two arrested people, which comes under the jurisdiction of another police station.
On December 14, at around 2. A.M, the Mumbai Police arrested Safikul Sarkar, his wife Regina Bibi, Tasdir S.K and his wife Hasira Begum from their residence in Shanti Nagar, under Kalwa police station of Thane district without telling them why they were arrested. They were put in jail at around 11 am on the same day after the police made them stand outside the Kalwa police station the entire night. The Magistrate Court ordered them to be kept behind the bar at around 3 pm after the Kalwa police shifted the case to the Court and both ignored to check their valid Voter ID and Aadhar cards when they approached to produce it before the Court and the police. Even when their Advocate appealed for bail, the Court thwarted his attempts to show the ID cards.
Seeing the adamant treatment of the Court, the Advocate filed an appeal for bail order of the innocent workers at the Section Court, which granted their appeal after ten days and ordered the Kalwa police to verify their documents. But the Kalwa police failed to produce the verified report of the arrested people four times on different hearing dates –January 16, 20, 24 and January 30. Following this, the judge ordered that the arrested people might be granted bail without police verification. As the bail order was security bail which mandates two persons each who are local and who have valid documents, they had to stay in jail because they could not find any locals to stand by them. Now they are waiting for the verification report by the Kalwa police. The four arrested including two women are now in Thane Central Jail.
The four are originally from East Burdwan district of West Bengal who is working there at the Santi Nagar locality of Kalwa police station. Tasdir and Hasira Begum are from Purandargarh village under the Galsi police station of the district. They moved to Mumbai only three months back in search of a job. They have three minor children between the age of 5 and 9. After the arrest of their mother, the children are staying with other Bengali workers. Safikul Sarkar and Regina Bibi are from Kalinagar village under the Dhatrigram locality of the district. Safikul is working there for the last 10 years. They all worked as delivery men at the Fish Market of the Kalwa locality of the Thane district.
Kiran Keni, the Advocate who is handling this case, said, “they got security bail but they have to know locals to sign that security. They are thus waiting for the verification report of the concerned police.”
Rajendra Bande, the C.I.D Officer, Mumbai, spoke to TwoCircles.Net and he said, “We have visited the village of Safikul Sarkar and Regina Bibi and verified all the documents that they had produced before the Court. We have also taken a written sheet from the Panchayat Pradhan, declaring that they are under his jurisdiction. The papers they submitted are the same as they submitted before the court.” The officer added that on Sunday, he also visited the Purandargarh village to verify the documents of Tasdir S.k and his wife Hasira Begum.
The Sub-Divisional Officer (S.D.O) of East Burdwan’s Kalna sub-division said, “ We have informed the matter to the Nabanna, (the State Secretariat building, West Bengal) who in turn contacted the Government of Maharashtra. We are always with the locals and will be helping them in every possible way.”
The verification process will be completed within a week and they will be released accordingly.
The actions of the Mumbai police have raised serious questions over the way they have treated Bengali workers working in Mumbai. A week ago, they again arrested six Bengali workers for being ‘illegal Bangladeshis’.