A clash at a migrant workers’ settlement in Hulimangala near Bengaluru has led to a police FIR after activist and doctor Nagendrappa T alleged that he and his associates were attacked while checking claims that Bangladeshi nationals were living illegally in the area. Residents have filed a separate complaint alleging that the group trespassed into the settlement, assaulted residents and demanded money.
According to Nagendrappa’s complaint, an unidentified person called him on October 28 and claimed that Bangladeshi nationals were living in Shikaripalya. Nagendrappa said he went to the area at around 4.30 pm with three members of his organisation. He alleged that workers approached the group and that a confrontation followed, during which they were pelted with stones and glass pieces.
Nagendrappa further alleged that around 100 people chased the group as they tried to leave, knocked them down and kicked them on their heads, legs, chests and backs. He also alleged that members of the group received death threats. The Hebbagodi police registered an FIR against unidentified people under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation, among other offences.
Residents have disputed this account. In a separate complaint submitted to Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge and Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh, Syed Imtiyaz, a Hulimangala resident, alleged that Nagendrappa and six others entered the settlement in two cars while claiming to be police personnel. The group allegedly demanded identity documents and between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh from residents, according to the complaint.
Imtiyaz also alleged that women and four young men were assaulted even after residents produced documents. A resident told The Indian Express that women and children were inside the homes when the group demanded Aadhaar cards and documents linked to the Special Intensive Revision exercise in West Bengal. The resident alleged that the documents were thrown away and that children were kicked when they intervened. A migrant worker was allegedly admitted to PES Hospital with a fracture.
The residents said they had moved to Bengaluru from West Bengal and possessed documents establishing their identities. They also alleged that when other workers reached the spot, Nagendrappa and the others left. According to the residents, police personnel who arrived after an alert to the emergency helpline 112 took some workers away following allegations that they had assaulted the activists.
It was not immediately clear whether the residents’ complaint would result in a counter-FIR. The competing accounts leave the circumstances of the confrontation, the identities of those involved and the alleged demands subject to police investigation.
The incident has also raised questions about repeated scrutiny of the settlement. In August, police conducted Operation Mukta to identify suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Residents and social activist Kaleem Ullah, who works with migrant communities, said the workers had been identified during that exercise as migrants from West Bengal and questioned why they faced further scrutiny.
The case follows a Karnataka High Court order last week quashing two FIRs registered against Nagendrappa after he alerted police about the alleged presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengaluru. The court directed the state government to constitute and operationalise district-level committees within three months in accordance with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ standard operating procedure on illegal immigration.
