The Trinamool Congress on Monday accused the Delhi police of torturing and extorting Bengali workers for speaking in Bangla.
The party claimed that 60 workers from Dakshin Dinajpur district were detained and beaten, with the police allegedly demanding bribes for their release.
"These are Indian citizens, targeted solely for their language and identity. This is a hate-driven crackdown on the Bengali identity, enabled and emboldened by the Bangla Birodhi BJP regime. Under @AmitShah’s watch, Delhi Police has turned into a tool of linguistic apartheid, criminalising Bangla, vilifying Bengalis, and extorting helpless workers," the TMC posted on X.
The party’s statement came as another group of Bengali migrants returned to West Midnapore from Surat after a similar encounter with the police.
Twelve men, aged between 19 and 35, had arrived in Gujarat and were supposed to start work as packaging staff for a logistics company servicing an e-commerce platform. Before they could begin, a police team raided the premises where they were staying.
According to the workers, the officers were in plainclothes and used force to drag them into a vehicle. They were taken to a police station, where they say they were accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
It wasn’t until the next day that one of their mobile phones was returned, enabling them to contact their families and ask for identity documents. The West Midnapore administration secured their release.
Two more workers from North Dinajpur had a similar experience from Gurgaon. The men were detained during a raid in Chakkarpur, Sector 28, on July 20, despite producing Aadhaar cards. They were allegedly held for 48 hours at a detention centre in Sector 31 and released on July 23.