Sohrab Hossain, a migrant worker from a North Dinajpur village, has decided to take a flight to reach Mumbai, his workplace, by spending four times his usual transport cost and half his monthly earnings.
He made this decision not to save time but to avoid “police” torture during train travel, which he encountered last week.
“I usually take a train to Calcutta and from there board a Mumbai-bound train. But this time, I will take a flight from Bagdogra. I have arranged the money by mortgaging some of my wife’s ornaments,” said Sohrab at his home in Dhoabishua, a village under Raiganj block.
For around four years, he has been working in Mumbai, making around ₹20,000 a month as a construction worker, the bulk of which he sends home for his parents, wife and three children.
He said that last week he had boarded a train to Mumbai. “As the train neared Nagpur, I was assaulted and looted by a group of people who introduced themselves as cops,” Sohrab said.
The incident traumatised him, he said. “Considering the recent incidents of torture and detention of the Bengali-speaking migrant workers, particularly in the BJP-ruled states, I thought its better to take a flight to Mumbai,” said Sohrab.
Asked to elaborate, he said that he came home on a break last month. “I had to go back to Mumbai, so on August 4, I took a train from Raiganj to reach Calcutta. On the next day, I boarded a Mumbai-bound train from Shalimar railway station in Howrah,” he said.
“On August 6, as the train stopped at a station a few kilometres ahead of Nagpur, I got down to collect water,” he said. “Suddenly, six men approached me, calling themselves cops in plainclothes. They asked me to show my identity proofs. I showed them my Aadhaar and PAN card, but they asked for my birth certificate.”
“Tell me, who carries their birth certificate?” Sohrab asked. “So I told them I do not have it with me. They alleged that I am a Bangladeshi and that I should go to the local police station with them. They took me outside the station and asked me to get into a car.”
Sohrab said that the car stopped after some time. “These people then started beating me and insisted that I should admit that I am a Bangladeshi. They searched me and took whatever cash I had, around ₹2,500, and my cell phone, and left me there. I was also threatened with dire consequences if I filed any police complaint,” he said.
Sohrab said that he took the return train to Calcutta by “somehow borrowing money”. From there, he returned home on August 9.
“I am worried about my safety. But as I am the sole breadwinner of my family, I have no option but to continue working in Mumbai,” he said.
According to him, he usually spends around ₹2,500 to reach Mumbai by train
from Raiganj.
“But this time, I have decided to take a flight to avoid such harassment. It would cost me around ₹10,000 or so, but it will be safer,” said the worker.
On Sunday, a delegation of the Citu-backed migrant workers’ union filed a complaint to Mohammad Sana Akhtar, the superintendent of police of Raiganj police district, via e-mail, narrating Sohrab’s ordeal.
“Such attacks have to stop. We suspect criminals are taking advantage of the actual persecution of Bengali migrant workers by impersonating cops and robbing them of their money. We want the district police to take necessary steps,” said Kartick Das, the district president of the union.
A senior police officer said a probe had been initiated.
Abhishek meeting
A delegation of 12 Trinamool leaders, including MLAs of the North Dinajpur district, held a meeting with the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Calcutta on Monday.
The delegation was told to highlight the torment faced by the migrant workers of the district in the BJP-ruled states in all their campaigns and speeches.
“We were also told to extend all possible help to the affected migrant workers and their families. We have been told to maintain a booth-level database of such workers and their families and be in constant touch with them,” said a party functionary.
