Supreme Court of India Seeks Centre’s Response on West Bengal Woman Allegedly Pushed into Bangladesh
Despite possessing documents proving her Indian citizenship, a Muslim woman from India was allegedly forcibly pushed into Bangladesh without any verification. In response to the incident, India’s Supreme Court has sought a response from the central government. The woman, identified as Ms Sahida Fakir, was allegedly pushed into Bangladesh following her detention. The court issued the direction based on a petition filed by her son.
According to the report, Ms Sahida Fakir is a resident of Gobindapur, West Bengal. She had been working in Mumbai for the past 20 years. She was detained on July 19 on suspicion of being an “illegal immigrant”. According to her son’s lawyer, who spoke to Scroll, she was kept in custody for more than 100 hours before being produced before a magistrate. No specific reason for her detention was provided, and she was not allowed to contact her family.
She was subsequently handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) and pushed across the border into Bangladesh. After receiving temporary shelter in Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds, she managed to contact her family on July 31.
The petition stated that forcibly pushing Ms Sahida Fakir into Bangladesh in this manner amounted to a gross violation of her fundamental rights under Articles 14, 21 and 22 of the Indian Constitution. As evidence, her 2008 voter ID card and her parents’ voter-list records from 2002 were submitted to the court.
It may be mentioned that in May 2025, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs instructed the states to verify Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals. Since then, allegations of harassment and unjust detention of Bengali-speaking Muslims have increased in various states across the country. Many people have allegedly been sent across the border into Bangladesh without verification of their documents, with evidence of Indian citizenship subsequently emerging in several cases.
