Workers in Odisha rounded up by BJP men on suspicion of being from Bangladesh are West Bengal natives, say police

After verifying their identity, the Ainthapali police stated that the 34 individuals — originally from Murshidabad area in West Bengal — had been working at the said construction site in Budharaja area of the western Odisha town over a few months. “We did not find anything suspicious, so we released the 34 individuals,” said a police officer from Sambalpur, in the know of the development.

In a similar incident in Basudevpur area of Bhadrak district on Sunday, several residents rounded up seven other persons — suspecting them to be infiltrators — and handed them over to the local police. On this, police said they are still verifying their identity and will take action accordingly.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday made a phone call to her Odisha counterpart Mohan Charan Majhi, and requested him to look into the alleged incidents of assault on labourers from her state in Odisha, a senior official said on Sunday.

“Several people from West Bengal have gone to Odisha to work. There are reports that they are being beaten up and tortured by the locals, on suspicion that they are from Bangladesh. The West Bengal CM spoke to her Odisha counterpart and requested him to look into the matter at the earliest,” the official said.

Banerjee also urged the labourers to return to West Bengal as soon as possible, and grab opportunities available in their own state.

When contacted, BJP Sambalpur unit president Girish Patel said that they had handed over the 34 individuals to police after they failed to provide satisfactory details about their identity, address, and names of parents during questioning. “Many Bangladeshi nationals, pretending to be natives of Murshidabad district in West Bengal, enter as well as reside across Sambalpur illegally. They then settle here,” Patel told The Indian Express.

Patel also alleged that the 34 individuals possessed fake Aadhaar cards. “They could not provide proper information about their parents and native places. So, we handed them over to police. We will continue to do so,” Patel said.

Odisha, which has a long coastline of around 480 km, has already sounded alert to the coastal districts of Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak and Balasore among others. During a meeting with various agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, Indian Navy and Coast Guard, the state government directed officials to secure its coasts and prevent infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into Odisha.

According to the Central government’s refugee resettlement policy, as many as 1,57,432 Bangladeshi settlers have been rehabilitated in 11 districts of the state, with over 80 per cent of them in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts — as Indian citizens. Besides, official data also showed that there are as many as 3,740 Bangladeshi infiltrators in Odisha, in districts such as Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Khurda.

(With PTI inputs)