My dear Home Minister,
It was recently reported that during 2007, about 500,000 Bangladesh nationals came to India on valid travel documents, out of who 25,712 had overstayed.  In the same year, the Government deported 12,135 to their country.  The Government must be maintaining a cumulative balance of the number of Bangladesh nationals who have entered our country on valid travel documents but have not returned to their country, at least during the last five years.  It is certain that some of them were apprehended in a subsequent year and deported.  It is also possible that a small percentage of may have died while in India, which fact can be ascertained from their last known addresses.  So the cumulative figure has to be updated every year.

It is reported that Delhi High Court has laid down a quota of 100 deportations of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh for each police district in Delhi.  I wrote to the Delhi Police Commissioner to find out the procedure followed when a person suspected to be an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh is apprehended by the Police and formalities about his / her deportation is being completed.  The papers have reported that on apprehension such persons are kept in detention camps which fall under the jurisdiction of the local Foreigners Registration Office.  I would be grateful to be informed of the total number of such persons in detention camps in Delhi as on 31 December 2008.  I would also be grateful to be informed whether they are produced before a Court to establish their status as an illegal immigrant and once such a status is established the procedure followed in handing them over to the Bangladeshi authorities.  I am advised sometimes they are simply ‘pushed back’ into Bangladesh by the police escort. 

As you are aware in many cases the apprehended immigrants or their family deny their Bangladeshi origin and claim their domicile in a part of our country.  This raises the question whether the Delhi Police verifies their claim before subjecting them to detention/deportation. With kind regards

Shri  P. Chidambaram,
Minister of Home Affairs,
Govt. of India, North Block,
New Delhi - 110001

My dear Home Minister,
It has been reported that the Government have drafted the Prevention

Unfortunately however the normal practice of the police in our country is to state wrongly in its records that date, time and place of arrest, often later than the actual, before the statutory presentation of the detainee before a magistrate. The intervening period is used by the police for torture and extracting confessions. In this manner even human rights activists and social workers have to face the ordeal of false trials. 

In my view, the criminal law needs to be tightened to make it a statutory requirement that when a person is taken into custody for interrogation, his family or neighbours must receive a receipt of custody, giving the date, time and place and indicate the place of custody. The receipt should, if possible, be endorsed by a respectable citizen in the area, immediately on arrest. Also when he is shifted to another place, the police should inform the next-of-kin. 
With kind regards

Shri  P. Chidambaram,
Minister of Home Affairs,
Govt. of India, North Block,
New Delhi - 110001