Weeks after he was accused of being an illegal immigrant and pushed to Bangladesh before being brought back to India this month, Malda resident Amir Sheikh was present at the Calcutta High Court Wednesday where his counsel sought compensation on his behalf.
The 19-year-old, who resides in Kaliachak, was alleged to have been unlawfully detained by the state police in Rajasthan, where he had travelled a few months ago in search of work.
During the hearing, the division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra enquired if Shiekh had been handed over to the family. Sheikh’s counsel replied in the affirmative and said: “We seek that Amir Shiekh’s detention be termed illegal and he be provided compensation.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Sheikh said, “I do not want to leave my home and go to any other state for work. I am very scared whether the police will arrest and torture me, and push me back to Bangladesh again.”
On Wednesday, Deputy Solicitor General Rajdeep Majumdar, representing the Border Security Force (BSF), submitted a report before the court on its behalf and said, “The BSF has no role to play. MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) and the Rajasthan Police yet to send report. Report sought since he was arrested in Rajasthan.”
The state government also submitted two reports, one from Basirhat police station and another from Kaliachowk police station, and stated before the court, “Report given by Kaliachowk police station and Basirhat police station as it is important as we have information about what had happened with Amir in Rajasthan.”
The matter will be heard again on November 12.
According to the petition submitted in Calcutta High Court, Sheikh had on April 3 migrated to Paradip in Odisha and then to Sikar in Rajasthan in search of a job. He was employed in Rajasthan as a labourer. On June 25, Rajasthan Police officers, accompanied by armed BSF personnel, conducted an identity verification drive at Sheikh’s worksite and “forcibly detained him without any communication on grounds of procedural safeguards”.
He was then held in a detention facility outside Sikar. On June 28, he was allegedly sent to Bangladesh. Following this, his father Jiyem Shiekh had moved the Calcutta High Court seeking judicial intervention to bring his son back.
Sheikh told The Indian Express that he had approached the state government to provide him some work, and alleged torture by the Rajasthan Police. “They took away my mobile phone and all my money, and would beat me, calling me a Bangladeshi. Then after close to two months, they handcuffed me and brought me to Kolkata and then handed me over to the BSF.”
He alleged that the BSF hand pushed him into Bangladesh in the middle of the night and he arrested by the country’s police force. Later, after his family got to know about his whereabouts through friends, they bailed him out, following which he was handed over to the BSF again. The force then brought him back.
“I am an Indian, not a Bangladeshi. I had shown all the documents, but the police refused to see anything in Rajasthan. It was a very traumatic experience. I will earn less here, but I will not go to any other state any more,” he said.