Bengaluru police officials on Monday, June 26 said that the family of Palash Adhikary, who is out on bail after being accused of being an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant, came to India several years ago. Sources in the Bengaluru police familiar with the case told TNM that they believed there were discrepancies in the documents submitted by Palash Adhikary and his family.

TNM had earlier reported about the incarceration of Palash, his wife Shukla, and their two-year-old son Adrik. The family had spent 10 months in jail before they were granted bail by the magistrate court of Bengaluru Rural district in April 2023. They were accused of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and booked under the Foreigners Act. Though out on bail, the family is still in the police’s dragnet as the case against them is still hanging over them.

The family provided several Indian identity cards to prove their citizenship but the prosecutor appearing for the Bengaluru police argued in court that the documents were fake. Sources in the Bengaluru police told TNM that though the family has a number of Indian identity cards to show ties to India in the last three decades, the police is unable to ascertain older identity cards including their education records. Police officials also told TNM that there were suspicions of human trafficking in the case.

Palash and his family were arrested along with five others on suspicion of being undocumented Bangladeshis. Palash’s family submitted documents showing ties to West Bengal’s Burdwan district going back years. The family was eventually granted bail in April, with the magistrate court noting that the documents indicated that the family was from West Bengal.

Palash had arrived in Bengaluru in June 2022, one month before his eventual arrest, after he found work in a plastic sorting unit in Sulibele in the outskirts of the city. Bengali migrants make up a significant part of the workforce involved in waste segregation in settlements like the one Palash worked in. In a city with overflowing landfills, the work done in these sorting units help recycle waste and separate useful plastics from going into landfills.

The plight of the Bengali migrant family was highlighted by Bangla Pokkho, a pro-Bangla advocacy organisation based in West Bengal. The family says they have also found support from Burdwan-Durgapur MP SS Ahluwalia of the BJP.

Read: A Bengali Hindu family’s struggle to prove their Indian identity to Bengaluru cops | The News Minute