Four Bengal workers, detained on Bangladeshi suspicion, released from Chhattisgarh

Four migrant workers from West Bengal’s Murshidabad, who were detained and kept at a holding centre in Chhattisgarh for over a month on suspicion of being Bangladeshis, have been released on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) night. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

After the Calcutta High Court’s intervention, Chhattisgarh Police have released the four migrant workers from West Bengal, who had been detained for over a month on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. 

On Monday (October 5, 2026), the Calcutta HC questioned the Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO), who is also the Superintendent of Police, Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur, over the authority’s move to determine the citizenship of four men from Murshidabad while their appeals against deletion of their names from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) are pending before the appellate tribunal. 

It also rapped the Chhattisgarh State for its ‘double standard’. It said that the situation was ‘contradictory’. “If the authorities were saying that some persons were not Indian citizens, then what would the appellate authority (tribunal) do?” questioned Justice Krishna Rao. 

It asked the Election Commission whether it was “playing” with the persons. The Supreme Court has formed the tribunal to decide on appeals by those whose names have been deleted from the electoral rolls. The court asked how the FRRO could make a decision on their citizenship.

Now, the night before the next hearing of the case on Thursday (October 8, 2026), all four of them- Sabir Sheikh (42), Safikul Islam (39), Nasiruddin Sheikh (35), and Laltu Sheikh (28)- have been released from the holding centre at around 9 pm on Wednesday (October 7, 2026).