Documents showing him as Bangladeshi have been questioned by court. The West Bengal government has certified him as a native of the state. The 32-year-old has had back-to-back cardiac episodes in the past four months. And, he has even recited the national anthem before the detaining authorities to prove he is Indian.
However, Rafiqul Biswas’s case continues to hang in the balance, with the Karnataka High Court asking the government this month to check his antecedents from Bangladesh, and get back by the first week of February.
Out of job, and scared of being targeted, Biswas, who made a living as a school bus driver and scrap dealer, has moved to a new area. Speaking on the phone, he refuses to disclose his location.
“My father is not Bangladeshi. He is from West Bengal. We were born here,” says Biswas’s teenage daughter, who spent days outside the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Bengaluru when her father was detained there, clutching documents.
The family’s ordeal began in September 2025, when the Bandepalya police arrived at Biswas’s home in southeast Bengaluru and took him to an FRRO detention centre. When his wife, who refused to be identified, asked why, she was told her husband was a Bangladeshi national.
Police showed a birth certificate and an identity document with Biswas’s photograph, identifying him as Bangladeshi.
The wife, who has alleged that police sought a bribe to “settle” the matter, moved the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). Sources in the commission told The Indian Express that the family had appeared before it.
Days into his detention, Biswas suffered a heart attack and had to be hospitalised. On December 19 – after he had another cardiac episode “due to the tension he is under”, says the family – he was released on medical grounds.
R Kaleem Ullah, the national vice-president of the Bengaluru-based All-India Shramik Swaraj Kendra, which works with informal-sector labour, says Biswas’s wife approached them for help. “His daughter was in tears.”
Kaleem Ullah says they filed representations before authorities, raising concerns over Biswas’s health and prolonged detention, leading to his release in December.
The NGO then approached West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s office, seeking verification of Biswas’s background. According to Kaleem Ullah, the Bengal authorities confirmed that the 32-year-old belongs originally to the state.
“Nadia Superintendent of Police Amarnath K coordinated with the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Board, to verify Rafiqul’s identity. After it was confirmed that Rafiqul is a resident of Bengal… all the necessary documents were sent to the Karnataka government,” Kaleem Ullah says, adding that they engaged lawyer Madhumita Bhattacharya to represent Biswas before the High Court.
During one hearing in October 2025, Bhattacharya pressed the need for a foreigners’ tribunal to determine a person’s status before any deportation move.
Earlier this week, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara told the state Assembly that the Congress government had intensified efforts to deport illegal immigrants, and had identified 990 such people so far, and deported 511, or more than half. One such drive was held in the Electronic City area of Bengaluru on January 4, leading to the detention of 33 suspected Bangladeshi nationals.
M A Saleem, the Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG-IGP), told The Indian Express: “Police are coordinating closely with Central agencies and the FRRO to verify the credentials of suspected illegal immigrants. Following verification, deportation procedures are carried out, in consultation with the FRRO. The drives are ongoing across Bengaluru and other districts.”
On January 12, while hearing the Biswas case, the High Court said that government authorities had themselves acknowledged that Biswas was a native of West Bengal, and that the prosecution should hence produce proof from Bangladesh if they continued to claim that he is a national of the neighbouring country.
On the FRRO’s appeal, the High Court granted it two weeks “to obtain necessary instructions as regards the verification of the identity documents… through the Bangladeshi authorities”, and posted the matter for hearing in the first week of February.
The court also sought an explanation from police regarding the documents produced by them showing Biswas as a Bangladeshi.
A senior officer familiar with the case told The Indian Express: “We received a letter from the State Intelligence stating that Biswas was an illegal immigrant and, upon the FRRO’s directions, we detained him. The voter ID card and birth certificate indicating that he was a Bangladeshi were also provided to us by the FRRO… We only did our duty.”
The officer added that the family’s allegations that they were told to pay a bribe were completely false.
A family member says Biswas believes “they want him gone”. “Because if he stays and fights, the truth about who created those fake documents (showing him as Bangladeshi) may come out.” He suspects neighbours he had “work-related disputes” with, and claims the police officers who arrested him knew him and were aware he was not Bangladeshi.
“We want to know how these documents were created and how police came to have them,” says Kaleem Ullah. “Is there a larger network involved?”
This is what fuels their apprehensions, the family, turned out by their old landlord who was apprehensive about the “Bangladeshi” taint, adds: could someone come for them next?
Curated by Aisha Patel
