Bengali Muslim jailed for 87 days over citizenship suspicion in India
Jalil Akhtar was detained, held for 87 days and nearly deported to Bangladesh despite electoral rolls and government records supporting Indian identity
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — An elderly Bengali Muslim man has walked free after spending 87 days in detention in eastern India and facing an attempt to deport him to Bangladesh, despite electoral rolls and government-issued records supporting his claim that he is an Indian citizen.
Jalil Akhtar, a resident of West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district, was released Tuesday after an Islampur court granted him bail, according to The Hindustan Gazette.
His case has intensified concerns over Bengali-speaking Muslims being detained as suspected Bangladeshis and forced to prove their right to remain in their own country.
Akhtar’s family says police took him from his home around midnight on June 19 while other family members were asleep. He was subsequently moved through holding facilities and jail as authorities sought to establish that he was an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant.
But records produced by his family showed Akhtar’s presence in India stretching back decades.
His name appeared on electoral rolls from 1995 and following voter-list revision exercises in 2002 and 2026. His family also submitted Aadhaar and voter identification documents as well as a 1967 land deed belonging to his father.
Police nevertheless moved toward deporting him.
Akhtar was held at Nizampur holding center, where police said biometric and deportation formalities were completed, before he was handed to India’s Border Security Force on July 4 for removal to Bangladesh. The attempt failed after Akhtar maintained that he was Indian, and he was returned to police custody.
Authorities subsequently registered a case accusing him of entering and remaining in India without valid travel documents.
During bail proceedings, however, the investigating agency’s verification found records relied upon by Akhtar existed in government databases, and the court said there was no material at that stage showing his documents were forged or fabricated.
It also ruled that failure to produce conclusive proof of citizenship could not by itself justify indefinite detention. The court stressed that the bail ruling was not a final legal determination of his citizenship.
Akhtar’s ordeal comes amid heightened scrutiny of Bengali-speaking Muslims in India over alleged undocumented migration from Bangladesh.
Rights advocates have documented cases of people being taken from their homes, placed in holding centers or expelled toward Bangladesh before their citizenship claims were fully examined.
Some Indian citizens deported in such operations have later been brought back after intervention by courts or authorities.
Association for Protection of Civil Rights, which provided legal assistance in Akhtar’s case, has called for an independent examination of why he was initially identified as Bangladeshi, whether safeguards governing his detention were followed and why he remained incarcerated after efforts to deport him failed.
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