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Bengal CEO orders inquiry into voter with 'links' to Dhaka student unrest

Bengal CEO orders inquiry into voter with 'links' to Dhaka student unrest

Time of India2 days ago

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal has directed the District Electoral Officer (DEO) and district magistrate of
South 24 Parganas
district to enquire and report on a person who is reportedly listed as a voter in South 24 Parganas district's Kakdwip but at the same time was allegedly involved in Bangladesh's students' movement last August.
"We have requested the concerned DEO and DM South 24 Parganas to enquire and report to us," WB-CEO Manoj Agarwal told ET.
Several photographs of the alleged person, identified as
Niutan Das
, participating in the 2024 quota reform protests in Bangladesh, which toppled the Hasina government in Bangladesh, have reportedly surfaced online, people in the know said. Das has claimed Indian citizenship and has documents, including a PAN card and Aadhaar card, to support his claim, sources said.
Das has claimed that he has Indian citizenship and had gone to Bangladesh and was caught during the protest. ET couldn't independently verify the authenticity of the photos, videos or the documents. "In 2024, I had to travel to Bangladesh in connection with our ancestral property and was caught up in the revolution there. I have been a voter in Kakdwip since 2014. Although I lost my voter card in 2017, I managed to get a new one in 2018 with help from local MLA Manturam Pakhira. I had cast my vote during the 2016 Bengal assembly elections," Niutan has claimed in a video message. He did not clarify if he resides in India or Bangladesh and if he is also a Bangladeshi citizen.
Conflicting statements have emerged with Niutan Das's cousin, Tapan, telling media persons that Niutan was "born in Bangladesh and exercises voting rights in both countries. He came to India after the pandemic to sell some ancestral land and has stayed here since."
A political slugfest began when a photograph of Niutan Das cutting a birthday cake in the presence of Trinamool's Sundarbans organisational district student wing president Debashis Das, came to the fore. Debasish clarified that he knew Niuton Das but had no idea that he was a Bangladeshi citizen. The authenticity of the video could not be ascertained by ET independently.
"The photo going around was taken at a birthday celebration. I urge the authorities to investigate," he added.

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India's ‘pushback' policy violates domestic and international law – but won't face global censure
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Scroll.in

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India's ‘pushback' policy violates domestic and international law – but won't face global censure

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Forcibly detaining individuals and physically throwing them out of the country violates Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty, applies to all persons within India's territory, regardless of their citizenship status, said Rita Manchanda, research director at the South Asia Forum for Human Rights. This has been underlined by the Supreme Court in several judgements, she noted. The same article was also violated when the Indian authorities deported Rohingya refugees, forcing them into a country that is gripped by civil war and where they face genocide, experts say. 'Pushing them into an active war zone poses a direct threat to their life,' said Anghuman Choudhury, a doctoral candidate in Comparative Asian Studies jointly at the National University of Singapore and King's College London. Choudhury emphasised that Sarma's statement that deportations will be carried out 'without legal process' violates of Article 14 of the Constitution. This article guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the law to everyone within Indian territory. 'Everyone has a right to be heard as per law,' he said. 'You cannot just pick up any suspected foreigner – even the suspected foreigner needs to go through the legal process.' Besides, these processes have been instituted to ensure that no Indian citizens are expelled from their country, he added. Is this a new policy? Experts told Scroll that while India had engaged in 'push backs' of foreigners before, it had never adopted this as a strategy for deportations. Contrary to Sarma's claim that 'pushbacks' are a 'new innovation', this method has been used on the India-Bangladesh border since at leastt 1979, said Choudhury, the doctoral candidate – but the purpose has changed. 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Scrutiny of policy unlikely Internationally, India's 'pushback' policy is likely to attract scrutiny from United Nations agencies. On May 15, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar began an inquiry into alleged deportation of 40 Rohingya refugees from Delhi. The special rapporteur, Thomas Andrews, described these alleged acts as 'unconscionable' and 'unacceptable'. Many experts told Scroll that India is already receiving bad press on the issue internationally. However, direct action against India would face significant hurdles. If a country violates treaty obligations, action could be launched against it in the United Nations' International Court of Justice. But geopolitical realities often deter international action, Kumar said. 'India is too strategically important as a huge market and a potential alternative to China in the global supply chain,' he said. 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