Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that the state government is developing an artificial intelligence-based tool in collaboration with IIT Bombay to help identify people he described as “illegal Bangladeshis”.
Speaking to a group of journalists at his official residence in Mumbai on Tuesday, Fadnavis said work on the AI system is currently underway and that its accuracy level is around 60%. “Right now, work on the tool is going on. It currently has a success rate of up to 60%,” he said.
Fadnavis said the government has launched a large-scale drive to remove such people from Mumbai and claimed the exercise would continue even after the municipal elections. He added that the AI tool would support law enforcement agencies in identifying suspected cases before further verification.
According to officials familiar with the project, the tool is being developed by the state’s information technology department at a cost of about ₹3 crore. It is designed to analyse speech patterns, accents and language usage to flag suspected Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas during preliminary checks.
The chief minister said the tool would only be used as an initial screening method and that proper investigation would still be required. “Once the system flags a person, police will carry out document verification to establish nationality,” an official said.
At the launch of the Mahayuti alliance manifesto earlier this month, Fadnavis had said the government planned to use technology to intensify deportation efforts. “We will free Mumbai from Bangladeshis. With AI, we will identify and deport 100% Bangladeshis,” he said.
Officials claimed the AI system would use specific linguistic markers to distinguish between Bangladeshi nationals and Bengali-speaking residents of West Bengal. However, linguists have pointed out that people from West Bengal and Bangladesh share very similar dialects, accents and vocabulary, especially in border districts, making such distinctions difficult.
Fadnavis said the government has also set up a detention centre to hold people identified as illegal immigrants before deportation. “We have been working on this for the last three months. In the next six months, it will be more reliable and ready for use,” he said.
The chief minister also alleged that many illegal immigrants first enter West Bengal, obtain forged documents and then travel to other parts of the country while accessing government welfare schemes.
The AI tool is currently in its experimental stage and has not yet been deployed for official use.
