Residents of Gurugram are receiving frantic messages from their employees, who are migrant workers from West Bengal, claiming that they are being threatened with eviction by landlords amid the police’s ongoing verification drive aimed at identifying and deporting Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in the city.
Ruchika Sethi, a social worker, said she received a distress call on July 29 from a woman working as a domestic help in her housing society.
The woman, who hails from a village in West Bengal’s Malda district and has been residing in the city’s Tigra area for the past 12 years, alleged that a few police officers and her landlord, who belongs to the Gujjar community, visited her building at midnight and threatened her and two other Bengali families with dire consequences if they failed to vacate their rented accommodation within a day.
‘Vacate by August 10’
Ms. Sethi said the domestic help was later given time till August 10 to vacate her house. “Those living in pucca houses were given time till August 10, while those residing in shanties have been asked to vacate by August 2,” she said.
A 53-year-old sanitation worker from the Sundarbans and a resident of Tigra said migrant workers are now living in constant fear. He said a young man named Akbar, who was carrying boxes in a cart, was recently stopped by the police. “As soon as they learned he was from Bengal, they began hitting him,” the worker alleged.
He claimed that migrant workers are being asked to vacate their houses and go back to West Bengal. They have been asked to cough up ₹50,000 if they fail to comply, he added.
“The police did not even ask Akbar his name or demand to see his documents. So, what is the guarantee that they will not torture us if we stay beyond August 10?” he said.
Several residents of Gurugram have submitted complaints to the police, urging them to “stop such atrocities”.
Captain Rupinder, another resident, said she submitted two complaints about different instances of Bengali migrant workers being targeted.
“We spoke to several Bengali migrant workers who live in Tigra and have urged the police to stop such acts,” she said. However, Assistant Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar dismissed the allegations as “rumours”.
He claimed that the police had held a meeting with domestic workers and 20-odd resident welfare associations (RWAs) to verify the allegations. “We met several workers in Tigra along with RWA members but no one raised any such complaints,” said the Gurugram Police PRO.
Published – August 01, 2025 01:39 am IST
