Branded Bangladeshi, Bengaluru man gets court relief after voter ID held genuine

On Tuesday, Justice Suraj Govindaraj took on record the memo filed by the Additional Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, and quashed the detention order against Biswas, saying, “… the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) would not have any jurisdiction on the petitioner, and the order (detention) dated 29-08-2025 would not be sustainable”.

Biswas told The Indian Express: “I couldn’t be happier. It finally feels like I belong. It feels as though Bengaluru is mine.”

His advocate Clifton D Rozario said: “This is an important case, where a detention order issued to an Indian citizen, on the erroneous allegation that he is Bangladeshi, has been quashed.”

Biswas worked as a school bus driver and a scrap dealer when he was detained by the Bengaluru police on allegations that he was a Bangladeshi national. Police produced a birth certificate and an identity document with Biswas’s photograph, certifying him as a Bangladeshi.

Days into his detention, Biswas was hospitalised following a heart attack. On December 19, he suffered from another cardiac episode and was released on medical grounds.

During the SIR held in West Bengal earlier this year, Rafikul Biswas got a fresh voter ID card along with his other relatives. (Express file photo)

On the directions of the court, enquiries were conducted by the Superintendent of Police, Krishnagar Police District, Nadia, and Block Development Officer, Nadia, in October 2025, after which they said Biswas is an Indian citizen by birth.

During the SIR held in West Bengal earlier this year, Biswas got a fresh voter ID card along with his other relatives.

In January this year, the West Bengal government, then led by the Trinamool Congress, filed a report based on inquiries by two different state agencies, saying that documents on record as well as the fact that Biswas and his family had cleared the SIR meant his claims of being an Indian were right.

But, on July 14, Biswas ran into another hurdle, when counsel for the West Bengal government sought time to “seek instructions”, citing the fact that there was a new party in power in the state, namely the BJP. “I have instructions that the new authorities want to review the document submitted before the court,” the counsel said, adding that this didn’t mean they would “be filing a contradictory report”.

Not amused, Justice Govindaraj slammed the West Bengal government: “How many times do you need time? Not fair. You are wasting the court’s time and everybody’s time.”

Rozario also contested the government’s stand. “Can my citizenship depend on the vagaries of who is in power in a particular state? This is extremely dangerous,” he said.

On July 23, Central government counsel Aditya Singh, representing the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), submitted that discrepancies remained in Biswas’s records. While his earlier voter I-card mentioned his date of birth as 1986, his new one said it was 1994, Singh said, adding that the ECI be called to clarify.

The Bench agreed, telling the ECI to state if the voter I-card produced by Biswas now was genuine. At the same time, it observed: “Is your submission that the SIR conducted is faulty?… If the SIR was conducted properly and this is the voter ID card issued, you are bound by it, and we are also bound by it. You cannot continuously make these submissions… There has to be a limit to something.”

The ECI’s submission on Tuesday followed this hearing.

‘A decade lost in a day’

While relieved that the shadow over him has lifted, Biswas said that all that he had built over the past decade in Bengaluru was destroyed “in a single day” when he was arrested. “I used to work as a school bus driver, and the school removed me because they believed I was a Bangladeshi,” he said.

His scrap godown and the house he was living in were also attacked, Biswas added. “Those who did so wanted me to leave. They thought they would win if I left. But I belong here. I am an Indian.”

But he was haunted by fear. “I was afraid that police would question me again or that goons would attack me, my family or friends. I had no money. Somehow we survived… Rebuilding will take years.”

Biswas also talks about his acquaintances back home in Bengal being “harassed” and facing repeated questioning on the suspicion of being Bangladeshis. “Today it was me; tomorrow it could be one of my friends.”

R Kaleem Ullah, the national vice-president of the All India Shramik Swaraj Kendra, said the High Court’s order had restored justice to an innocent man. “With Independence Day approaching, Rafikul has one more reason to celebrate. In many ways, he has got his own independence.”