The Karnataka High Court on Monday criticised the West Bengal government for requesting more time to review documents proving the citizenship of a school bus driver detained in Bengaluru after the police alleged that he was an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant, The Indian Express reported
Rafikul Biswas was detained in August 2025. He had told Scroll at the time that he was from West Bengal’s Nadia district and had been living in Bengaluru for more than seven years with his wife and daughter. He had stated that the police were threatening to deport him to Bangladesh.
The 32-year-old has records showing that he is an Indian citizen by birth and was issued a fresh voter identity card in the special intensive revision of Bengal’s electoral rolls, The Indian Express reported.
However, the counsel for the West Bengal government had sought more time to receive fresh instructions from the state in the matter. The new authorities wanted to review the document submitted before the court, the newspaper quoted the counsel as saying.
The Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in West Bengal after defeating the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly elections in May.
On Monday, Biswas’ lawyer asked in court: “Can my citizenship depend on vagaries of who is in power in a particular state? This is extremely dangerous.”
The lawyer said that the West Bengal government had filed a report on inquiries conducted by two agencies in the state.
The inquiries conducted by the police and the block development officer in Nadia in October had found that Biswas is an Indian citizen, The Indian Express reported.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj took exception to the request made by the Bengal government’s counsel.
“How many times do you need time?” the newspaper quoted the judge as having verbally remarked. “Not fair. You are wasting the court’s time and everybody’s time.”
The court asked all parties to file documents and said that it will hear the matter next on July 23.
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 BJP, 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 Tanya Shrivastava.
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