A political row has erupted over the detention of nine migrant workers from West Bengal in Chhattisgarh’s Kondagaon district for allegedly staying there for several days without submitting documents to the local authorities, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra described the detention as a case of “state-sponsored kidnapping” by the Chhattisgarh government and the police.

The Kondagaon Police told The Hindu that the nine men were detained on Saturday and released on Monday. Superintendent of Police Akshay Kumar said that the workers had been living in the district for the past three months but had not informed their local police station despite repeated announcements.

“Day before yesterday, we found them during patrolling,” The Hindu quoted Kumar as having said on Monday. “When we asked for their names and IDs they did not produce and started misbehaving with us.”

Kumar added that the police prepared a memorandum and produced the men before the sub-divisional magistrate.

Following this, the men were detained under a section of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita that allows a magistrate to order persons suspected of concealing their presence to commit a cognisable offense to execute a bond for good behaviour.

The superintendent of police added that all nine men had been released and that it was up to them if they wanted to stay in Kondagaon or return to West Bengal, The Hindu reported.

A habeas corpus petition was filed in the matter before the Chhattisgarh High Court on Monday, The Indian Express reported.

On Monday, Moitra said that the Chhattisgarh Police had detained the men, all residents of her Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal, despite them having gone to the state through a labour contractor and with documentation and verification.

The men were working as masons on a construction site at a private school in Kondagaon’s Albedapada, the MP added.

“On July 12, police came to the site where they were staying and picked them up,” Moitra alleged. “All of them had valid documents. Their mobiles phones have been switched off. We have got information from their family members that they have been put in Jagdalpur jail in the neighbouring [Bastar] district.”

Moitra added that neither the Bengal government nor their families were informed about the detention.

“We have not got a copy of the detention order or a hearing; they had no access to a lawyer or a phone call,” she said. “They say they have been released, but there is no mobile phone contact.”

Claiming that the Kondagaon superintendent of police had told her that he did not want the workers in the district, the Trinamool Congress MP asked why Indian citizens who were working legally needed to leave the state.

Detention in Gurugram

Twenty-six Bengali-speaking persons from Assam were allegedly detained in Gurugram in the last two days on suspicion of being undocumented Bangladeshi migrants, a migrant worker, Anwar Hussain, told Scroll. They have been released and were travelling to Assam, he added.

They are from Assam’s Barpeta and Baksa districts and were working as garbage collectors in Gurugram. The police had asked them to produce documents to verify their identity.

“The workers submitted their voter ID cards and Aadhaar cards but the police did not accept them,” Hussain said. He alleged that Muslim workers were selectively targeted.

This comes nearly a month after four men from West Bengal, who had been picked up by the Maharashtra Police and forced across the border into Bangladesh, were brought back on June 15. The Murshidabad Police in West Bengal had presented proof of them being Indian citizens.

Over the past month, Indian authorities have been pursuing a policy to “push” individuals claimed to be undocumented migrants into Bangladesh. Many of those forced out of the country claim they are Indian citizens.

India has forced out more than 2,000 persons into Bangladesh since the country launched “Operation Sindoor”, a military operation against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The legality of the “push back” policy has been debated in India and internationally. Experts have told Scroll that the policy violated India’s obligations under international law and customary international law.

Also read: India’s ‘pushback’ policy violates domestic and international law – but won’t face global censure