Rafiqul Sardar had just returned from his shift at a Salt Lake garbage depot when a reporter appeared outside his makeshift home near Kolkata's Central Park metro station. The 23-year-old changed his work clothes, wore a lungi and vest when he was confronted by a woman with a microphone and phone, demanding to see his voter identification card and proof of Indian citizenship.
What happened next has been viewed more than 15 million times.
In the viral video, Sardar attempts to explain his situation before walking away – only to be pursued by the reporter shouting in Bengali: "Dada, where are you running away? You are a Bangladeshi, you are a Bangladeshi."
"I was inappropriately dressed to come in front of the camera when a reporter suddenly came and started cross-checking information about my hometown and whether I was eligible to vote in India," Sardar told Decode.
“She later chased me down and accused me of fleeing the spot to avoid being interviewed. It was very disturbing for me." The incident, which occurred on 7 November, is part of a troubling pattern emerging across West Bengal, where the revision of electoral rolls has created an atmosphere of suspicion and fear.
Media outlets have deployed reporters to "verify" the citizenship of residents in working-class neighbourhoods. These videos, where journalists are chasing residents, demanding documents and branding them “Bangladeshi” are viral on social media platforms.
A State Gripped By Document Anxiety
The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an enumeration process meant to update voter lists, has thrown West Bengal into chaos. Booth-level officers have complained of excessive work pressure and requested extensions. Meanwhile, migrant workers across India have been rushing home, fearful that missing the revision deadline could jeopardise their voting rights and raise questions about their citizenship.
Against this backdrop, several news organisations have taken it upon themselves to investigate whether undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants are living in Kolkata's slums. The resulting reports, heavy with innuendo and featuring confrontational encounters with residents, have gained massive traction online.
The video featuring Sardar was uploaded by Bangla Hunt, a pro-right news outlet, on 8 November. In it, a reporter, Riya Giri, conducts what she frames as an investigation into "illegal migrants from Bangladesh" who have allegedly settled on government land.
The caption reads: "We are not Bangladeshis! But we have to tell our father's names by referring to voter cards! Who are these people in Bidhan Nagar?"
In another report from the same outlet, disturbing visuals show a local man-handling the camera and refusing to speak after he was confronted for being a 'Bangladeshi'.
In the interaction, he says he was interrupted while going for a shower. "Give me proof to show that I have come from Bangladesh. You did not even spare me when I said that I am going for a shower. Why will I be scared?"
“How Can I Forget My Father’s Name?”
In the Bangla Hunt footage, Sardar can be heard explaining that his SIR enumeration is being processed in his native area of Lakshmikantapur (South 24 Parganas). "My parents are there in Lakshmikantapur. When the form comes, I will go home," he tells the reporter. He mentions that his brother's form has arrived but his own has not yet reached him.
When Sardar attempts to direct the reporter to speak with other residents, she accuses him of trying to escape. "I am not running away, and I am not afraid. There are people there, you come and talk to them," Sardar protests, as the reporter suggests he appears nervous.
She then pursues him, shouting accusations. The video also shows the reporter claiming Sardar had forgotten his father's name.
"How can I forget my father's name?" Sardar told Decode. "Since it was there in the 2002 electoral list along with my grandfather, I was looking at my phone to refer to that."
Sardar shared with Decode electoral lists from 2002 showing his father, Momin Sardar, and grandfather, Abul Hassan Sardar, as registered voters in Canning West of South 24 Parganas .
He has also filed a complaint against the reporter at Bidhannagar Police Station, a copy of which is with Decode.
He said he possesses legal documents proving his forefathers were residents of Bengal's Joynagar, near the Lakshmikantapur area. "My folks from Joynagar alerted me about the video and how it had gone viral. Since then I have been very upset."
The video has been reshared more than 16,000 times with Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tarunjyoti Tewari amplifying it from his Facebook account.
When contacted for comment, Bangla Hunt defended its approach. “During the interaction, the individual concerned was asked to provide any valid documentation supporting his possession or lawful presence on the government land,” they responded to Decode over an email. “He was unable to produce any such document. Furthermore, when additional questions were asked, he abruptly attempted to flee the location."
Bangla Hunt further said, “While pursuing him to continue the line of questioning, the reporter asked about his place of origin, including whether he was from Bangladesh, as he was evading the valid queries being posed to him."
A Pattern Of Confrontation
Sardar's experience is far from isolated. Sheikh Naseem, his 43-year-old colleague who lives in Salt Lake's CC Block, described a similar encounter with Republic Bangla, a news channel. "I was sleeping in my room when the channel's reporters came to verify documents," he told Decode. "They saw it was locked and said that we had left home."
Republic Bangla broadcast what it termed an "exclusive" report from Udayan Palli in Salt Lake, where a reporter approached a local resident about his SIR form. When the resident declined to comment, saying he had all his documents, the channel characterised his response as the "arrogance" of an illegal immigrant.
The report claimed that several homes in the neighbourhood had been found locked, suggesting that illegal immigrants had "vanished" after the SIR process began.
Rashtriya TV, another far right news outlet, reached Gouranganagar near Ghuni in Kolkata, confronted locals and demanded they show valid documents of their citizenship.
What followed next and was also documented in the video report was a major showdown between one Mintu Mondal, a local landowner and the reporter Tamasree Rudra for the latter trespassing his area. At one point Mondal also threatened to throw hot water on the reporter to drive her away.
Mondal, 50, later clarified to a news outlet that the reporter entered and questioned his tenants to produce citizenship documents without permission and labelled them as Bangladeshis when they refused.
All the reports viral on social platforms bear the same pattern - reporters storming in shanties and slums and branding residents as Bangladeshis without proof, irking them and resulting in bitter exchange of words and retaliations. Many of them have also accused locals of lying and being nervous for being ‘outed’.
Rashtriya TV Bangla’s video has been viewed more than 3 lakh times with more than 25,000 comments - most of them praise the journalist for “outing a Bangladeshi citizen” and daring to visit slums inhabited illegally by them.
Beneath the other video reports, commenters also provide supposed leads about other areas where Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants are allegedly living in Kolkata.
Debunking The ‘Bangladeshi’ Claim
When Decode visited Udayan Palli, residents disputed the media narratives. Shahjahan Gazi, who owns several properties in the area, dismissed the reports as false.
"The families are living here, and the homes are shut because they went to work," Gazi said.
Mithun Sheikh, who was identified as an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant in the Republic Bangla report, told Decode the channel had misrepresented him. "The Republic Bangla reporter asked me if I have documents and I said yes. Then they claimed on their own that I am a Bangladeshi," he explained.
"I am an Indian citizen and was born in India, and so were my father and ancestors. Why will I produce these documents to the media? Who are they to verify?"
At Sardar's residence, where he lives with his wife Mamoni, his brother, and his infant daughter, the family remains on edge. Mamoni was out when the Bangla Hunt reporters arrived. "I had gone to the doctor with my child," the homemaker told Decode.
Rafiqul Sardar's wife Mamoni Sardar at their residence in Salt Lake, Kolkata. Photo: Srijit Das
The climate of suspicion has real consequences. According to a press release, several Bangladeshi nationals were intercepted by the Border Security Force at Hakimpur check post in North 24 Parganas on 17 November as they allegedly attempted to cross the border and return home amid the SIR process.
For families like Sardar's, caught between bureaucratic delays and media scrutiny, the revision of electoral rolls has become something far more sinister: a test of their right to exist in the only country they have ever called home.