A police crackdown on illegal immigrants in Gurugram continues to trigger a mass departure of Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers – many of whom have lived and worked in the city for decades as domestic workers, drivers, sanitation staff, and daily-wage labourers.

It’s not just Bengali Market, which saw nearly 400 people return to their villages in West Bengal. In South City-2’s Q block, Newslaundry found around 200 rented homes without inhabitants: many were either locked or had been stripped bare, with cupboards tied shut and stacked outside, mattresses propped against doors. Locals estimate that over 1,000 residents have left in the past week.

Q block, unlike Bengali Market, has a mix of middle income and lower income families. Locals alleged that several residents had been detained or harassed over nearly a week. At least two have written letters to the Gurugram police commissioner requesting that they should not be harassed in the name of verification.

It remains unclear how many have been detained across the district. Newslaundry sent a questionnaire to the commissioner’s office. This report will be updated if a response is received.

Q block is under the jurisdiction of the Sector 50 police station. Asked for comment, SHO Satyawan said the police visited homes but did not detain anyone. “No one has been detained so far, nor have we received any complaints from the locals. We also informed locals on calls over the last four to five days that a verification process will be carried out…we have visited their homes, checked their IDs, and returned those to them then and there.”

This comes amid a similar drive in various states against alleged Bangladeshi immigrants living in India without legal documents and concerns about violations of human rights and due procedure. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier accused the BJP of hounding Bangla speakers in BJP-governed states.

‘Not eaten for three days’  

Most locals from Q block who spoke to Newslaundry said they were from Murshidabad district in West Bengal.

Fifty-one-year-old Kabir, an e-rickshaw driver, has lived in the area for nearly two decades and hails from Mirzapur in Murshidabad. He claimed he was picked up while driving home around 4 pm eight days ago and was released within two hours on the same day. “From my Aadhaar card to my passport; even my birth proof is from Delhi.”

He claimed the police had also picked up his son, adding that he filed a complaint with the police commissioner requesting that the family not be harassed by the police. He also claimed his son’s identity papers are still with the police. 

Kabir’s daughter Nabila*, 19, who works in E block as a domestic worker, earns Rs 22,000 per month for working 10 hours daily. Her family moved from Delhi to Gurugram when she was just four months old, and they have been living there for the past 19 years. But she hasn’t gone to work since her father was picked up. 

Nabila claimed her family visited the police station repeatedly over three days to find out the whereabouts of her brother. “My sister-in-law is eight months pregnant and has a two-year-old daughter. Despite that, she too had to spend three days in the police station waiting for her husband to get released.”

Meanwhile, grocery store owner Rahul Amin Haque, who has been living in Gurugram from Murshidabad for 12 years, claimed he’s submitted a letter to the police pleading that Bengali Muslims not be harassed. He showed us his voter ID and his Aadhaar card. 

Anju, a 42-year-old who has lived in the area for around two decades, claimed her son – who works at a mobile store in Good Earth Mall – was picked up twice. “The first time, I tried to stop them. They threatened to slap me.” She alleged that he was detained for a few hours each time. Now he’s left home for Murshidabad.

Amin Uslam, who worked for Rs 16,000 a month, claimed he was picked up along with eight others by the police, and that two of them were assaulted.

Sanoval Sheikh, in Gurugram for 12 years, claimed locals have been abandoned by both the state and the media. “You’re the first journalist to come here,” he told Newslaundry. “Why is no mainstream media covering this,” he asked, demanding a parliamentary debate on the issue.

‘It’s the ambiguity’

In the Tigra area in Sector 57, families point to ambiguity around who may be picked up next. Some seemed prepared to leave.

Newslaundry spoke to 10 locals, who alleged there was fear after a police unit tried to detain two individuals in the area on Wednesday. 

Manwar SK, a 30-year-old domestic worker, claimed the police “let the two individuals go after they called the sarpanch from their area in West Bengal”. He said he has been in Gurugram since he was in class 6 but has now booked tickets to go to Murshidabad. “The main reason for leaving is not detention. It’s the ambiguity.”

Rupali Khatun, another local, alleged the police unit manhandled her five-year-old son. 

The area is under the jurisdiction of the Sector 55/56 police station. Reached for comment, SHO Vinod Kumar denied all the claims. “No one has been detained by our team. However, there are other wings who might have detained. We have no information about the same.”

*Name changed to protect identity.

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