Indian court halts deportation of Muslim man labeled Bangladeshi
Karnataka High Court ordered identity verification after detainee said he was wrongly identified as Bangladeshi during crackdown on suspected undocumented migrants
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A court in southern India has temporarily halted the deportation of a Muslim man who says he is an Indian citizen, after he challenged authorities’ decision to identify him as a Bangladeshi national during an ongoing drive against alleged undocumented migrants.
The Karnataka High Court ordered officials not to deport Abdul Rahim until they verify his identity, saying authorities must determine whether he is the same individual linked to an earlier criminal case in northern India before removing him from the country.
Rahim has been held in detention since March after Bengaluru police detained him during a campaign targeting people suspected of living in India without legal documentation.
He was later transferred to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which identified him as a Bangladeshi national and ordered his detention pending deportation.
Rahim, however, maintains that he was born in Seemapuri, a neighborhood in New Delhi, in 1979 and has lived in India his entire life. According to his petition, he moved to Bengaluru in 2014, where he established a government-registered waste management business.
His lawyers told the court that he possesses multiple official documents identifying him as an Indian citizen, including a birth certificate, voter identification card, Aadhaar identity card, PAN card and driver’s license.
They argued that authorities detained him without issuing prior notice, giving him an opportunity to respond or conducting a meaningful inquiry into his citizenship, violating constitutional protections guaranteeing equality, personal liberty and due process.
During the hearing, Justice Suraj Govindaraj directed the FRRO to determine whether Rahim is the same person convicted in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 under the Foreigners Act for allegedly entering India illegally from Bangladesh. According to court records, that conviction is currently under appeal before the Allahabad High Court.
Until those questions are resolved, the court ordered that Rahim must not be deported. The case will be heard again on July 14.
Rahim’s legal team also argued that initiating deportation proceedings while his appeal in the earlier case remains pending amounts to subjecting him to multiple legal proceedings over the same allegations. They said his detention has left his wife and infant child without support while disrupting his business.
The case comes amid an intensified crackdown by Indian authorities on people suspected of being undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants, particularly Bengali-speaking Muslims.
In recent months, rights groups, opposition politicians and families of detainees have alleged that Indian citizens have also been swept up in the drives because of mistaken identity or documentation disputes.
Bangladesh has meanwhile protested several incidents in which people were allegedly pushed across the border without due process, including individuals whose families and lawyers maintain they are Indian citizens.
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