Not to courts, directly to BSF: CM Adhikari's order to Bengal cops on Bangladesh illegals

Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants detained in West Bengal should no longer be produced before courts but handed directly to the Border Security Force (BSF) for deportation, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Thursday, according to reports. The directive, which he said came into force from May 20, has been communicated to both the state police and the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

Under the mechanism announced by Bengal's new BJP government, those found to be illegal migrants and not eligible to seek citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) would be taken straight to BSF border outposts instead of being produced before a court.

The move forms part of what Suvendu Adhikari has described as Union Home Minister Amit Shah's broader "detect, delete and deport" framework for dealing with "Bangladeshi infiltrators".

This, in a way, marks a departure from the procedure usually followed in cases involving foreign nationals accused of entering India without valid documents.

In 2016, then Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said in Parliament, "According to available information, there are about 20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India."

The government has made it clear that illegal immigrants are a threat to the nation's security.

Suvendu Adhikari's announcement comes amid an increasingly aggressive political push against illegal immigration from Bangladesh in India, especially in BJP-ruled states.

The BJP had repeatedly accused the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of turning a blind eye to illegal Bangladeshi infiltration for vote-bank politics. The TMC denied the charge. Cracking down on "infiltrators" and tightening border security emerged as one of the BJP's central campaign themes in the 2026 Vidhan Sabha Election that brought it to power in West Bengal.

ASSAM CM HIMANTA BISWA SARMA HAS ADOPTED PUSHBACK STRATEGY

In neighbouring Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has pushed a similar hardline line on "infiltrators" in recent months, saying the state had begun deporting or "pushing back" people declared foreigners instead of keeping them indefinitely in detention centres. Reacting to a diplomatic row, the statement created, Himanta cited a Supreme Court order and the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to argue that district authorities can act against illegal immigrants without waiting for a Foreigners' Tribunal route in every case.

Reports said Assam had pushed back hundreds of people, though the exercise has also triggered court petitions and concerns over the due process of law.

The common political line also found a moment. After Himanta's oath ceremony in Guwahati, which came days after Suvendu took office in Kolkata, the Assam CM shared a photo and wrote, "Bad days for (You know who)". The remark was read in the context of the two BJP chief ministers' anti-infiltration stance and politics.

WHAT EXACTLY DID SUVENDU ADHIKARI ORDER ON EXPELLING BANGLADESHIS?

Speaking to reporters in Howrah on Thursday, Suvendu Adhikari said police and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had been instructed not to send certain categories of detained Bangladeshi migrants to court.

"The police commissioner and the RPF have been clearly instructed that if illegal migrants from Bangladesh, who are not entitled to apply for citizenship under the CAA, are detained at the Howrah Station, they should not be sent to a court," said Adhikari.

"The persons concerned should be properly fed and then taken directly to the BSF personnel at the Petrapole border in Bongaon or the border outpost in Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district," he added, reported Kolkata-based The Telegraph newspaper.

Adhikari also directed that a weekly report on such detainees be sent to the Chief Minister's Office through the Director General of Police.

WHICH LAW IS BENGAL GOVT RELYING ON TO DEPORT ILLEGAL BANGLADESHI MIGRANTS?

While announcing the policy, Adhikari did not specifically identify the legal provision under which the state government intends to bypass the court route.

However, news agency PTI reported that Suvendu appeared to be referring to the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, a law passed by Parliament in April 2025. The law seeks to establish a modern framework for immigration management, registration, surveillance, detention and deportation.

According to Adhikari, "Since yesterday, the new rule has come into effect under which infiltrators will not be sent to courts but handed over to BSF outposts at the Bangladesh border."

On Wednesday, while announcing the broader deportation policy, the chief minister had said that the Centre had communicated instructions regarding identification and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

"The Indian government sent an order on May 14, 2025, asking the Bengal government to identify Bangladeshi immigrants and hand them over to the BSF for deportation," he said.

"We will be implementing the order... arresting all such illegal immigrants and handing them over to the BSF," added Suvendu.

CAN POLICE HAND OVER ALLEGED ILLEGAL MIGRANTS WITHOUT PRODUCING THEM BEFORE COURTS?

This is the most significant unanswered question emerging from the announcement made by Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari.

According to The Telegraph, several senior police officers privately expressed doubts about whether law-enforcement agencies can determine on their own that a person is an illegal immigrant and directly transfer them to the BSF without judicial scrutiny.

"If a Bangladeshi national is arrested for either entering India without valid documents or overstaying, the person is usually booked under the provisions of Section 14(A) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, and produced before a court," a senior West Bengal Police officer told the Kolkaya-based newspaper.

"Who will decide whether a Bangladeshi national has entered illegally or overstayed in India beyond their permit? The court. It can't be at the discretion of the law-enforcing authorities," the officer added.

The provision cited by the officer prescribes penalties for unauthorised entry into restricted, protected or prohibited areas and carries imprisonment ranging from two to eight years along with monetary penalties.

However, the process is lengthy.

Adhikari's order is the latest in a string of moves by the BJP government of West Bengal. It recently handed over land to the BSF for fencing and is carrying out a statewide anti-encroachment demolition drive.

It has also imposed stricter qurbani rules before Eid and has made the singing of Vande Mataram in educational institutions, including in madrasas, mandatory across the state. Together, they point to a government determined to make border control, law enforcement and cultural assertion the defining themes of its first months in office.

While the legal questions might eventually get to the courts, Assam is already pursuing a similar exercise and the Centre has tightened its approach towards illegal immigration. The BJP-led Bengal government, for its part, appears determined to "detect, delete and deport illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators" rather than let such cases get tied up in years of legal proceedings.