Overview

• Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam filed two habeas corpus petitions in the Calcutta High Court on July 4 seeking production of Bengali-speaking workers allegedly detained illegally by Odisha Police.
• On July 3, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant wrote to his Odisha counterpart demanding an end to detaining Bengali workers without custody memos or judicial hearings.
• The Migrant Workers Unity Forum announced plans to file Public Interest Litigations in the Calcutta High Court to challenge the branding of Bengali-speaking migrants as Bangladeshis.
• Odisha authorities have rejected centrally issued documents such as Aadhaar and voter IDs, instead requiring migrants to produce ancestral land records.
• Reports indicate similar detentions of Bengali-speaking migrants in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, underscoring a broader pattern of linguistic discrimination and due process violations.