Mehbub returned to Balia Hasennagar this May to celebrate Eid al-Adha (in early June, 2025) with his family. Their two-and-a-half storey house was built brick by brick over years by this family of masons. It has five rooms and some space on the ground floor to set up a shop in future. The part where Mehbub lives with his wife and homemaker Surna Bibi, 30, and their three children, is as yet unplastered on either side. Their eldest son Bakul Sheikh,16, having dropped out of school, is working in a nearby shop. The younger sons – Sagar Sheikh,12, and Rehan Sheikh,7 – are studying in a local school. On the occasion of holy qurbani and Mehbub’s homecoming, his family even made arrangements for the ritual sacrifice.
It didn’t happen. “Repeated calls from the construction site at Thane,” summoned him back.” Mehbub flew back to Maharashtra and resumed his work – leaving family and celebrations behind.
On June 9, while having tea at a local stall, he was picked up by police without explanation and taken to an outpost of theirs near the Shree L R Tiwari College of Engineering in Mira Road, Thane. At night, he was transferred to the Mira Road Police Station where he was asked for documents to prove his citizenship.
“‘You are a Bangladeshi, right?’ The officers asked me in Hindi. I said, ‘I am from West Bengal’ and showed them my Aadhaar and PAN card. They said, ‘these can be bought for five rupees nowadays’,” Mehbub told this reporter.
Somehow, he stealthily phoned his family in Balia Hasennagar who immediately contacted the local gram panchayat at Mahishasthali and sent all the necessary documents to the Mira Road Police Station. “For four long days,” says Mehbub, “I endured immense mental torture. Through daytime I was made to sit outside the station and was put in a police camp during nights.”
The Mira Road police contest Mehbub’s account of wrongdoing on their part. Senior Inspector Meghna Burade stated that they were “not at fault.” And that the detention of Mehbub Sheikh and others was carried out on a police commissioner’s order.