Kolkata, July 16 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, sought clarification from the Union government on why the process of identification of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators started nationally and in all the states at the same time.

The division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Kumar Mitra also questioned why the month of June this year was chosen for the simultaneous beginning of the process of identification of the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators in all Indian states.

The division bench also asked the Union government to clarify the allegations that Bengali-speaking people were indiscriminately targeted in the process of identification of the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

The division bench made these observations during the simultaneous hearing on two similar petitions alleging indiscriminate and selective targeting of Bengali-speaking people in states other than West Bengal in the name of identification of the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

One of the petitions was related to such alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in Delhi, and the other petition was about a similar event in Odisha.

In his argument in one of the two cases, the Deputy Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi informed the division bench that after the Pahalgam terror attack, the process has started where people with suspicious activities or movement are being questioned for verification.

He also denied the allegation that Bengali-speaking people were selectively and indiscriminately targeted. “A total of 125 persons were detained for verification, out of which five were sent back to Bangladesh after they admitted to their Bangladeshi citizenship. The others were released,” Trivedi informed.

As regards the other case, the Additional Solicitor General Asok Kumar Chakraborty questioned whether the Calcutta High Court could hear the matter, since the petitioner in the case filed a similar petition at the Delhi High Court before approaching the Calcutta HC.

The Additional Solicitor General argued this was a typical case of misleading the Calcutta High Court since the same matter could not be heard simultaneously by two High Courts.

The division bench also took exception to this development of the same petition being filed at two High Courts and directed the Union government to file a detailed affidavit in the matter by July 28.

The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for August 4.

–IANS

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