For Sahida’s family, July 19 began like any other day, but ended in fear and uncertainty. The mother of the children had left her home in Navi Mumbai to visit a nearby market, expecting to return as she normally would. But when she failed to come back, concern quickly turned into panic. Her family searched for answers, only to receive a startling phone call from the Mumbai Police’s Chembur Crime Branch. Sahida, they were told, had been detained on suspicion of being an “illegal immigrant.”
Her husband, Jumman, rushed to the police station, where he learned that Sahida was dragged into a building where suspected “illegal immigrants” were reportedly being detained.
“Her phone and Aadhar card were also taken from her,” Jumman told FoEJ Media.
The battle continued for Jumman; he made visits to the police station with Sahida’s identity document only to hear, “They were not enough.”
“They asked me to bring Sahida’s father’s birth certificate. Where was I supposed to get that from? Did birth certificates even exist back then? I barely managed to get mine. Where would I get Sahida’s father’s from?” Jumman questioned, speaking to FOEJ Media.
Later, on July 23, Jumman was told that “she has been sent to Bangladesh.”
According to the family, Sahida was taken to Assam and pushed across the borders into Bangladesh. She, at the time of writing this article, is currently staying with a family in Bangladesh after walking for eight hours and wading through muddy fields.
“They pushed me into Bangladesh from the Assam border around 1 am. I walked for eight hours through muddy fields to reach the main road,” Sahida told Indian Express.
“I am an Indian citizen and just want to return home. My son is in Class 7; who will look after him?” she added.
Jumman, meanwhile, also told FoEJ Media that Sahida possessed the documents like an Aadhar card, a birth certificate, and a voter ID card. These documents have been seen by FoEJ Media, the copy of which has been attached in the article.
“We will approach Calcutta High Court for her return,” Jumman told FoEJ Media.
According to the reports of the Indian Express, Sahida and her family had previously participated in the voter roll revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal.
“We are three sisters and four brothers. We were called for hearings and submitted all our documents. The names of my brothers and one sister are on the voters’ list, but my elder sister’s name and mine are currently before the tribunal,” Sahida told Indian Express.
On July 23, a human rights organization also wrote to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court about the “illegal arrest, arbitrary detention, denial of constitutional safeguards, and unlawful” branding of Sahida as a “Bangladeshi.”
“Executive authorities have no jurisdiction to declare an individual as a foreign national merely on suspicion or profiling,” said Kirity Roy, secretary of Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha as reported by the Scroll.
“Sahida’s illegal detention, without giving her reasons for her arrest, without producing her before a magistrate, and despite overwhelming documentary evidence establishing her Indian citizenship, demonstrates a disturbing pattern of arbitrary action against vulnerable citizens,” the Scroll further reports.
Earlier, in the case of Sahida, another woman from Bengal, Sunali Khatun, her eight-year-old son Sabir, and her husband were picked from Delhi and sent to Bangladesh. They were sent despite them possessing land records in Bengal.
In another case that occurred in June 2025, five West Bengal migrant workers were detained in Mumbai and were pushed into Bangladesh before being repatriated. This comes following a Border Security Force-Border Guard Bangladesh flag meeting.
