Detained in Delhi, taken to Assam, pushed into Bangladesh after a night on the border, caught while trying to return, and jailed in Chapainawabganj — for 25-year-old Sunali Khatun, the past five months have been longer than a lifetime. Speaking to The Indian Express on Wednesday, Khatun, now nine months pregnant and still stuck in Bangladesh, said she only wants one thing: To deliver her baby in India.
On Wednesday, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it was ready to bring back Sunali “on humanitarian grounds”.
“I just want to return home, return to India. I want my child to be born in India. I have been told that there will be further legal complications if the baby is born in Bangladesh. But what about my husband, and another woman and her two children, who were deported with me? They need to go home with me,” she said over the phone.
Sunali and her family, migrant labourers from West Bengal, had been working as ragpickers in Delhi for around 20 years when they were picked up by the Delhi police on June 26 as part of a crackdown on alleged illegal immigrants.
The police rounded up her husband, Danish, their eight-year-old son, and another family member, Sweety Bibi (32), along with her two minor sons. “They collected our fingerprints and put us on a plane to Assam, where one night we were told to move towards Bangladesh. We told the BSF jawans that we are Indian, but they did not listen,” said Sunali, speaking from Chapainawabganj.
“That night we hid in the bushes. We were carrying nothing, not even a change of clothes. In the morning, we went to a nearby village in Kurigram district, where locals gave us food. We told them we were Indian, and they were sympathetic, looking at my condition and at the children. A couple there allowed us to stay in their house. After two days, we tried to re-enter India by walking through the bushes. We were desperate to return. But we were caught by the BSF, thrashed and told to move towards Bangladesh,” she alleged.
“We lost hope of returning to India and went back to the village. There, we met the Bangladesh Border Guards, who gave us 2,000 Taka (about Rs 1,500) and told us to go to Dhaka. In the capital, we roamed the streets like beggars for a week. Then, we somehow managed to contact a relative of ours, Faruk Sheikh, and he sent us some money,” she said.
“We moved to his residence in Chapainawabganj. On August 21, the police arrested us (under the country’s Passport Act and Foreigners Act), after which we were produced in court and sent to jail. My son and I were kept in a cell, the other woman (Sweety Bibi) and her children in a hall. My husband was kept in a ward meant for men. There was no bathroom in the cell. We would be allowed out between 6 am and 4.30 pm, and I used the common bathroom. I was completely shattered, but the jail authorities did what they could for me,” said Sunali.
A court granted the group bail on Monday, with the condition that Sunali will not leave the country. They are now back at Sheikh’s home.
The first thing Sunali did after being granted bail was to speak to her family on a video call. “My five-year-old daughter is in Delhi with my mother and sister,” she said.
Sweety Bibi, who has been with Sunali since they were deported, chimed in, “We all want to go home. How long can we live in someone else’s house?”
On Wednesday, all from the group except Sunali appeared before the Chapainawabganj court; she was granted an exemption since she is pregnant.
Advocate Shofiq Enaetullah, who is representing them, said, “The ball is in the Indian government’s court. If they, through the embassy here, appeal to the court seeking the group’s return, the court is likely to grant the request. Then, the Bangladesh Border Guards and the BSF will have a flag meeting where they will be handed over. The court had, on October 3, written to the Indian Embassy in Dhaka for a legal ‘pushback’ of the Indian citizens. The court is sympathetic to these people and has granted them bail on humanitarian grounds.”
“However, we have heard there is talk of only Sunali and her son being allowed to return. This, in my opinion, is unequal treatment… If there is an inordinate delay from the Indian side, the court may pronounce them guilty… Also, if the baby is born in Bangladesh, there will be legal complications,” said Enaetullah.