The Karnataka High Court on Monday stayed a deportation order by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Bengaluru against a man accused of being an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant who has been in detention since March, The Indian Express reported.
The man, Abdul Rahim, claimed that he is an Indian citizen by birth and that the order was passed against him on account of mistaken identity.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj directed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office to verify Rahim’s identity, The Indian Express reported.
The judge noted that he claimed to be the same person who had been held guilty by an Uttar Pradesh court for allegedly entering the country without documents from Bangladesh, and that an appeal against the conviction is pending in the Allahabad High Court.
Govindaraj told the Foreigners Regional Registration Office to check whether Rahim’s claims about the case in Uttar Pradesh are correct. The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 14 and directed the authorities not to deport him till then.
Rahim was detained on March 5 by the Bengaluru Police during a drive to identify alleged undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants, and handed over to the FRRO, The Indian Express reported.
On the same day, the Foreigners Regional Registration Office passed an order under the Foreigners Act, directing that he be sent to the Utile Foundation detention centre in Bengaluru.
Rahim’s lawyer Clifton Rozario told the court that his client is an Indian citizen by birth, and that he has a birth certificate, passport, voter ID card, Aadhaar and several other documents, The Indian Express reported.
The petition contended that the detention order was passed without hearing Rahim, and without a meaningful inquiry into his citizenship.
Rozario also argued that the detention order amounted to double jeopardy, as Rahim had already been convicted by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad for allegedly entering and living in India without valid documents, The Indian Express reported.
Double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried twice for the same offence. The protection against such prosecution is laid down under Article 20 of the Constitution.
According to Rahim’s petition, he moved in 2014 from Delhi to Bengaluru, where he runs a waste management business through a government-registered proprietorship. He also holds a Goods and Services Tax registration certificate issued under the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax Act, The Indian Express reported.
In May 2025, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs directed the states and Union Territories to verify the credentials of persons suspected to be undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states, most of them ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.
Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after the state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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