By Scroll Staff
Four men from West Bengal, who were forced into Bangladesh on allegations of being undocumented migrants by the Border Security Force, were brought back on Sunday, the state police said.
The four persons were returned to India after the Murshidabad Police in West Bengal presented proof of them being Indian citizens.
Mehbub Sheikh, a man from West Bengal who had been living in Mira Road near Mumbai for work, was detained by the Maharashtra Police on allegations of being an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant, and “pushed” across the border into the neighbouring country on Saturday, The Indian Express reported.
The West Bengal government said that the 36-year-old mason was forced into Bangladesh even though the West Bengal Police and the state’s Migrant Welfare Board had furnished documents proving that he was an Indian citizen.
The 36-year-old’s family said he had been living in Maharashtra for the past two years, and had been staying in the Mira Road area of Thane district, according to The Indian Express. The family members said that they live in the Hossainnagar village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
Sheikh was taken into custody on the suspicion of being a Bangladeshi on June 11 while he was drinking tea in Mira Road, and was taken to Mumbai’s Kanakia police station, his younger brother Mujibur said.
“He called us from Kanakia police station,” Mujibur told the newspaper. “We immediately informed the local police and administration, as well as our panchayat pradhan and the migrant welfare board. They said they were in touch with the Maharashtra Police.”
He said that by June 13, the family had sent documents proving his citizenship and lineage in India to the Maharashtra Police.
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