Sana Kauser, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi/Gurugram: Santosh Mistiri had only gone out to buy vegetables. It was early morning. The market near Badshahpur Shamshanghat had just opened. He never came back home. His wife Sagori Sarkar Mistiri began searching the nearby lanes. As the hours passed, panic set in.
“We heard he had been picked up by the police. He had all his documents such as Aadhaar, Voter ID Card and PAN. But they still took him,” she said.
What followed was a nightmare. Sagori and her son-in-law went from one police station to another, pleading for information. Instead, both were locked up.
“They made us sit in different rooms. Then they asked me to call my son. When he came, he was detained too. We were punished just for trying to find my husband,” she said.
Santosh was detained for two days. He alleged he was beaten, kicked with boots and hit with sticks.
“We have lived in this country for generations. My great-grandfather was from Malda. I work here and pay rent. How can they call us Bangladeshi when we have been living in the country for generations? Forget about me, I can show documents of my ancestors,” he said.
Fear now walks before dawn in the tin-roofed slum at Sector 66 in Haryana’s Gurugram. For years or even a decade, these lanes bustled with people from Malda, Murshidabad, 24 Parganas and North and South Dinajpur districts in West Bengal. Most residents here work as domestic help, gardeners, drivers, delivery agents and masseurs.
They paid Rs 2,200-2,500 per month, excluding electricity, for their rented huts.
Life was not easy, but it was theirs. But now, it is barely a life. Since July 16, dozens have been picked up by the police, some on their way to work, while others from market corners or from their shanties. Their ‘crime’? Speaking Bengali?
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Haryana government has launched a special drive since July 16 to trace and detain alleged illegal Bangladeshis living in the Satellite City.
Tarun Mandal, 24, remembers what happened to a man they called “Doctor Saab” – a physician named Akash Dutta. He was picked from the market on the suspicion of being a Bangladeshi and lodged for six days in a detention centre in the city.
“They beat him every day. He paid Rs 90,000 to get out. Then he ran back to Malda. His home and clinic are still locked,” he said.
Tarun now stays home with his wife and two-year-old daughter. He is afraid of what might happen if he goes to work. He still owes money on a bank loan.
“We came here to survive. But now we are scared to even step outside. We have heard what they do to women,” said his wife, Sapna Mondal.
She recalled an elderly man allegedly picked up from near the cremation ground. “He was held in detention for five days. After they let him go, he died. His wife and children disappeared after that. No one wants to talk,” she said.
Matiur Rahman, 34, a housekeeper, has seen it unfold in broad daylight.
“Three days ago, two drivers were detained by the police while working. Each had to pay Rs 40,000 to get out. They have fled back to Bengal,” he said.
Rahman watched police vans, without number plates, pull up near the local Bengali market around 7 a.m. “They were in uniform. I saw them drag women into the van. They were going to work. No reason for their detention was given,” he said.
Men like Rahman have stopped letting their wives leave home. “What if they do not come back?” he asked.
Even children are not spared. Siddhi Kumari, a grade six student and daughter of a contract labourer, saw a man in uniform going door to door.
“He asked for everyone’s Aadhaar card. He took my father’s and charged Rs 100 from each family before leaving,” he alleged.
Rahman, along with two others, Ramazan and Suraj Ali, stood holding tatkal train tickets. They were headed back to Malda. The fear had finally become too much.
“The ration shop owner, Anarul Thekedar, was detained for nine days. He paid Rs 25,000 to be released,” Rahman said.
Suraj Ali, 36, looked defeated. “We are poor people trying to live with dignity. We expected protection from this country, not punishment,” he said.
He paused and added, “Most of our neighbours have already left. The rest will leave soon. But before we go, I have one question: don’t we deserve some dignity? Are we not human too?”
What the Law Says and Doesn’t
There is no public record of FIRs, deportation orders or formal charges against those detained in Sector 66. Most are released after days in custody, often only after allegedly paying large sums of money.
There is no legal provision in Indian law that allows the police to detain individuals solely based on language or perceived ethnicity. The absence of accountability raises serious questions about profiling and alleged extortion under the guise of “illegal immigrant” crackdowns.
In this new India, speaking Bengali seems enough to invite suspicion. For the working poor in Gurugram, every knock on their door now brings more fear than hope. And every word in their mother tongue could be the one that costs them their freedom.