Eight months pregnant Sunali Bibi is “stateless”. Weeks after she was detained along with her husband and eight-year-old son in Delhi and pushed into Bangladesh on suspicion of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, the 29-year-old woman from West Bengal’s Birbhum district was arrested by Bangladesh Police on Thursday for being “illegal infiltrators”.
Bibi, her son, and husband were arrested from Chapainawabganj district, Bangladesh police said, adding that another family from West Bengal – Sweety Bibi (32) with her two sons, aged 6 and 16 years – was also arrested from the area.
This comes as the Calcutta High Court is hearing the habeas corpus petitions filed by the families of the two women.
“They were pushed into Bangladesh from Kurigram (bordering Assam). Thereafter, they spent some days in Dhaka, mostly on the streets. For the past month, they have been residing in Chapainawabganj district. We have arrested them. We have found Indian documents from them. They will be produced in the court tomorrow (Friday). The court will decide. All legal proceedings will be undertaken according to the law of our country. Since women and children are there, we are handling the issue with due respect and sympathy,” Rezaul Karim, the police superintendent of Chapainawabganj, told The Indian Express over the phone from Bangladesh.
The family of Sunali Bibi hails from Birbhum district in West Bengal. Members of her family worked as ragpickers and domestic helpers in Delhi for the past two decades.
Like Sunali, Sweety Bibi (32) and her two minor sons, hail from a village in Birbhum. They were also detained and pushed into Bangladesh at the same time. Both families were detained in Delhi’s K N Katju Marg police station and then deported.
A video of Sunali and others appealing for help from an undisclosed location in Bangladesh following their deportation had gone viral on social media.
Reacting to their arrest in Bangladesh, the chairman of West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board, Samirul Islam, said it was a matter of “grave concern”. “Sunali is pregnant and children are with them. They are all residents of West Bengal, and we will bring them back in all possible legal ways. Already the matter is being heard by the court,” Islam, a TMC Rajya Sabha member, said.
“Now, they become people with no country. We are of the view that back channel dialogues are more effective than fighting legal battles. The focus and emphasis must be on their immediate repatriation through back channel talks between the two countries. The legal battle which is bound to be prolonged can’t help serve the cause,” said Arnab Pal, convener of Paschim Banga Parijayi Sramik Aikya Manch (Joint Platform of West Bengal Migrant Labourers).
Hearing their habeas corpus pleas, the Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra on Wednesday called the matter “very serious” after Additional Solicitor General Ashok Chakraborty, representing the Centre, said it “cannot be heard” in the Calcutta High Court since it is pending in the Supreme Court.
The Bench, however, scheduled the next hearing on September 10, saying, “It is a serious issue and there should not be a conflicting decision”.
This comes close on the heels of detentions of Bengali migrant labourers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh during the drive to nab illegal Bangladeshis.
A total of nine residents of West Bengal, who were detained in Mumbai and Rajasthan, and pushed into Bangladesh. have been brought back after the intervention of the West Bengal government.