A Muslim woman identified as Sahida Fakir, belonging to West Bengal, was allegedly detained after police and criminal investigation officers called her an illegal Bangladeshi despite holding multiple government records and identification documents that proved her Indian citizenship.
Following this, the human rights organization Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) has moved to the Calcutta High Court, asking for urgent intervention. The organization has alleged that Fakir was arbitrarily detained and illegally arrested.
Kirity Roy, the secretary of MASUM and national convenor of PACTI, complained to the chief justice of the High Court that the police and CID did not follow proper legal procedures and failed to protect Fakir’s basic rights given by the Constitution.
According to the complaint, Fakir was stopped by police on July 19 on her way to the market. She was then allegedly taken to a place where people who are suspected of being foreigners were kept. The complaint further reads that the police and CID labelled her as a “Bangladeshi” before completing the legal processes and investigation.
The complaint says that Sahida has many official documents showing that she is an Indian citizen. These documents include her voter ID card, PAN card from the Income Tax Department, birth certificate issued by the authorities, and records of land owned by her in Gunrajpur village, Swarupnagar Block.
MASUM alleged that Fakir was under custody for 90 hours without being produced before a court. She was allegedly not told the reason for the arrest and was not allowed to speak with lawyers or her family. The complaint said this violated her constitutional rights, which require police to present an arrested person before a magistrate within 24 hours. It also said the police did not follow rules requiring them to explain the reason for arrest and inform a family member about the arrest.
MASUM further said that the police officials do not possess the authority to unilaterally declare if a person is a foreign national without due process. It said that only the proper legal process, under laws such as the Citizenship Act and Foreigners Act, can determine a person’s citizenship status.
“It is not within the executive’s jurisdiction to declare a person a foreign national merely on the basis of suspicion or profiling,” the complaint said.
