Kolkata: The phone call came on September 25.
On the other end was Abdul Rahim, a 37-year-old paddy trader from Uttar Dinajpur whom his family had not heard from for months.
The voice was familiar. But the place from where he was calling was not.
Rahim was calling from Bangladesh.
It was the first time his son, Abu Kalam, had heard from his father since Rahim was allegedly taken into custody in West Bengal in June. A second call followed in October, again from Bangladesh.
“We did not know where my father was. The police did not tell us anything. Then he called us from Bangladesh,” Kalam told eNewsroom.
Kalam, a mason, has since had to shoulder the responsibility of running the family after his father’s detention and alleged transfer to Bangladesh.
According to Kalam, his father told the family that he was moving from place to place in Bangladesh without shelter.
“He is living like a beggar in Bangladesh. Living here and there, and sometimes he has been badly treated,” Kalam said.
Rahim was unable to tell the family exactly where he was.
“We will ask him about it next time, when he calls,” Kalam added.
For Rahim’s wife, four children and relatives in Uttar Dinajpur, the calls have brought some relief in knowing that he is alive. But they have also raised a far more troubling question:
How did a man allegedly taken into custody in West Bengal end up calling his family from across the border in Bangladesh?
And perhaps even more importantly: Who took him there?
When a Voter List Dispute Becomes a Family Crisis
For the family, the story began not with Bangladesh, but with a name disappearing from a voter list.
Kalam says his father’s disappearance came against the backdrop of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
“Like millions of others, my father’s name was also deleted during the SIR. We had applied in the tribunal,” he told eNewsroom.
eNewsroom has also accessed land records showing property in the names of Abdul Rahim and his father, Lal Mohammad. The land was registered on November 28, 1986. The family says Rahim has lived in the area for decades and holds several identity documents, including an Aadhaar card, voter identity card, PAN card and ration card.
The question of whether Rahim is an Indian citizen or a foreign national, however, remains legally distinct from what transpired after he was allegedly taken into custody.
According to a complaint submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a team of police, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and civic police personnel arrived at Rahim’s home in Kuilara Anantapur village under Bhatol Gram Panchayat on the night of June 2, allegedly looking for him.
Rahim was not at home.
Instead, according to the complaint, the personnel took his elder son, Abu Kalam.
The following morning, relatives and local representatives visited the Bhatol Police Outpost seeking Kalam’s release and were reportedly asked to produce Rahim.
Rahim then arrived at the outpost carrying his identity documents.
According to the complaint, police retained his Aadhaar card, voter identity card, PAN card, ration card and other records without issuing a seizure list or receipt.
Rahim was then allegedly detained.
What happened next is what the family has spent months trying to uncover.
The Story Surfaced Months After Rahim Disappeared
Rahim’s case came to the attention of rights organisation Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) only recently.
“We came to know about it a couple of days back when it was reported in a local newspaper. Later, our team conducted fact-finding and wrote to the NHRC,” MASUM secretary Kirity Roy told eNewsroom.
Roy said the family had received calls from Bangladesh.
“The family has received three calls from three different numbers in Bangladesh so far,” he said.
MASUM subsequently approached the NHRC seeking an inquiry into Rahim’s alleged detention and disappearance and the circumstances in which he may have reached Bangladesh.
The complaint asks the authorities to clarify whether an FIR was registered against Rahim, whether an arrest memo was prepared and whether he was produced before a magistrate as required by law.
It also seeks details of any order or legal authority under which Rahim may have been removed from India.
The complaint further calls for the preservation of police and BSF records, including General Diary entries, custody records, CCTV footage, vehicle and wireless records, and border-crossing or handover documents.
At the heart of the complaint is a straightforward question: If Rahim was detained in West Bengal, under what legal framework was he transferred across an international border?
The allegations have not been independently established, and the authorities have not publicly explained the circumstances surrounding Rahim’s alleged transfer. Attempts to contact local authorities for comment were unsuccessful prior to publication.
Jalil Akhtar Case Adds to Questions in Uttar Dinajpur
Rahim’s case follows other instances in West Bengal’s border districts involving residents detained on allegations that they are Bangladeshi nationals.
In another recent case in Uttar Dinajpur, 66-year-old Jalil Akhtar was detained on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national and remained in custody for nearly three months before being granted bail.
Akhtar’s case also involved questions over documents produced to establish his identity and Indian connection.
While the legal circumstances of the two cases are not identical, both raise questions about the process followed when the nationality of a resident is challenged.
From Delhi’s Streets to a Village in Uttar Dinajpur
While protests against the implementation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have spread across India, civil society organisations such as Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), political parties including the CPI(ML), and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have taken to the streets in Delhi, intensifying the public debate over the electoral roll revision.
But in Uttar Dinajpur, the issue has taken on a far more personal meaning for one family.
For Abu Kalam, the ordeal is not merely about a deleted entry on an electoral roll.
His father disappeared too.
And after his father’s detention and alleged transfer to Bangladesh, the burden of keeping the family going fell on him.
The family says it was not told where Rahim had been taken or what had happened to him. Months later, his voice came from Bangladesh.
The next time the phone rings, Kalam says, they will ask his father the question that has haunted the family for months:
“Where are you?”
For now, that question remains unanswered.
So does another:
How did a man allegedly taken into custody in West Bengal end up on the other side of an international border?
