Seventeen workers from a garment factory were detained on suspicion of being Bangladeshi but were later released. The incident occurred on December 30 in the Malaharganj police station area of Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Allegations suggest that local BJP workers detained them on suspicion of being Bangladeshi. They were later handed over to Malaharganj police. Although they identified themselves as citizens of this country, police took their Aadhaar cards and voter cards for verification.
It was found that the phone numbers linked to many of the workers' Aadhaar cards did not match. This increased police suspicion. Nine of them are from Nandigram in East Midnapore. The rest are residents of South 24 Parganas. Eventually, the factory owner contacted the Nandigram block administration. The factory owner sent a list of all 17 names. The Nandigram block administration identified 9 of the 17 as residents of Nandigram.
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It was found that the remaining 8 are residents of South 24 Parganas. The Nandigram block administration then sent all detailed information including voter lists to the factory owner. When all information was provided to Malaharganj police by the factory owner, the 17 were released. Naziruddin Sarkar, BDO of Nandigram-1 block, said, "We found the names of 9 people in the voter list and sent their detailed information." A family member of one of the workers said, "I have asked my son to return home as soon as possible. I am worried until he returns home."
