Deportation, and re-deportation? A family looks for 14 kin, from Odisha to Bengal to Bangladesh

In the sweep by the police in Jagatsinghpur district in November end, Rabani’s sister Mairun Bibi, her husband Sheikh Raja and their three children (all below the age of six) were picked up, along with Raja’s nine relatives, from Dhanipur village under Tarikund panchayat. The Odisha Police has confirmed that the 14 were handed over to the BSF and “pushed” into Bangladesh as part of directives by the state and Central governments.

“When we came to know that my sister’s entire family was detained, we went to the local (Jagatsinghpur) police station. We were told they were detained on the suspicion of being undocumented Bangladeshis,” Rabani told The Indian Express.

The 32-year-old, who works as a mason, said they requested police officials to at least reveal where Mairun and her family were lodged. But were sent away.

“Later, a relative told us that the family was forced into Bangladesh. We also got information about Mairun’s in-laws, but have no news of her, her husband and children,” says Rabani, adding that daily struggle to make ends meet leaves him with little time to run around trying to find Mairun.

Apart from the 14 who were deported, Rabani says, two of his elder brothers were detained by the Kendrapada Police around the same time. But police allowed them to go after they produced “various documents” to show they were Indian.

Rubani asks why the documents of the others did not suffice, adding that their late father was born in India. For as long as Rubani remembers, he has lived in Kendrapada, and says he and his seven siblings all studied here.

Mairun’s in-laws also say the family has been living in Jagatsinghpur for a long time. Rahima Bibi, 68, says her three brothers, including Murani’s father-in-law Jabbar, relocated from Patibunia village in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas to Jagatsinghpur decades ago. They worked as hawkers, vendors and masons.

Rahima, who lives in Bengal’s Purba Medinipur, says: “Recently, I got a call from a relative that Jabbar’s entire family had been forced into Bangladesh, though they have documents to show they are Indians.”

Her nephew Ruhulamin Khan is exploring legal remedies to get them back, Rahima says. So far, no other family has gone to court against any deportation in Odisha.

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone, Ruhulamin, 43, says that one of the 14 managed to call Rahima from Bangladesh and told her they had regrouped in Chattogram. “That was the last call we received from them, in the first week of January. We have had no contact since then.”

Ruhulamin adds that the Odisha Police handed over the 14 to the BSF, which pushed them into Bangladesh from near Nadia. According to him, the Border Guard Bangladesh sent them back, saying there was no proof of them being Bangladeshi. However, as per Ruhulamin, the BSF spotted them again, at Hili border in West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur, and after two days, re-deported them, this time via the Sylhet border.

The BSF did not respond to repeated attempts to contact it. Officials in the Odisha Police said that they acted as per the Union Home Minister guidelines, which require illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar to be sent to a shelter home after proper verification. “The state police has no responsibility once they are handed over. The BSF takes care of further processes,” said a senior police officer.

Odisha Police crackdown

On November 16, 2025, the Jagatsinghpur Police conducted raids at Dhanipur following information about an organized racket that “harboured illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and engaged them in unlawful activities”. Police said they seized five swords, one country-made pistol and seven sharp-edged weapons in the raids.

The alleged “mastermind” of the racket, Sikander Alam alias Seiko, and his brother Abdul Motalif Khan were arrested on November 22. Soon after, a 10-room structure owned by Alam and seven other thatched structures in Tarikund which the government said were built on its land and “taken over by illegal immigrants” were razed.

There are no other family members of Alam around, and neighbours are tightlipped on the matter.

“People from a majority of the households here were summoned by police for verification, and detained for a week. Those who produced documents were allowed to go while others were sent to the detention centre,” a resident at Tarikund, among the few willing to talk, says.

Says Jagatsinghpur SP Ankit Verma: “Any deportation is undertaken only following a thorough verification and as per the law of the land… We have confessions of people who, during the verification process, admitted they were from Bangladesh.”

As per the break-up provided by the authorities, till December 1, about 1,760 suspected persons had been “verified” by police and the STF, of which 1,667 were let go after verification on the basis of documents such as Aadhaar, voter Id or ration cards, or land and call records. Verification of 50 people is said to be pending in different districts.

The state has one detention centre, at Athagarh in Cuttack district, with 18 holding centres in districts. Officials are not sure of the exact number of people being held. An SP of another coastal district said that at any time, nearly 30 people may be awaiting verification at holding centres.

Calling the whole exercise an “eyewash”, former Jagatinghpur MLA and senior BJD leader Prasanta Muduli said: “Suspected Bangladeshis are no doubt present in coastal villages in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada… and it’s not a recent issue… If the government is serious about resolving the issue, it should come up with a permanent solution.”

BJP MLA Durga Prasanna Nayak from Mahakalpada, a region that is known to have a sizeable number of immigrants, said the government has a clear policy on infiltrators based on “thorough verification” and is taking steps to “strengthen marine police stations” to check entry of infiltrators.