KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal Chief Secretary to appoint a nodal officer to get in touch with the authorities in Odisha and take necessary steps to ensure release of Bengali speaking migrant workers from the state who were detained there.A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Mitra of the Calcutta High Court also directed the West Bengal Government to act immediately and submit a report to the court in this regard on Monday.There have been allegations of Bengali speaking migrant workers from West Bengal being detained in Odisha. The Calcutta High Court has sought answers to several questions in this case.The bench asked, why were Bengali migrant workers detained? On what basis were they detained? Has any FIR been filed? What action has been taken against those migrants after their detention? Where are they now?The High Court has directed the West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to send these questions of the court to the Chief Secretary of Odisha. The bench will take its next decision after seeing his reply.Counsel for petitioner Razzak Sheikh from Hariharpara in Murshidabad submitted to the bench that his son Samiur Islam went to Odisha in search of a job. The counsel submitted that the Bengali speaking person was held up by the Odisha Police during a special identification drive and arrested on June 30, 2025.“The arrested person has not been produced in court since then. There was no arrest memo issued, and the family of the person in custody was not informed about the arrest. This is nothing but illegal detention,” the counsel submitted.
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