Sunali Khatun (25), a pregnant woman who along with two of her family members and others was pushed into Bangladesh in June this year on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant, returned to India on Friday with her eight-year-old son following the Supreme Court’s intervention, officials said.
The mother-son duo entered the Indian territory from the Mehadipur border outpost in West Bengal’s Malda district following a flag meeting between the BSF and the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB).
Sunali, her husband Danish Sheikh, their son and Sweety Bibi (32) and her two children aged 16 and six, who all hail from West Bengal’s Birbhum district, were picked up by the Delhi Police from a colony in the national capital and pushed across the India-Bangladesh border on June 26 nearly a week after being kept in detention.
Danish, Sweety Bibi and her two children still remain in Bangladesh, as the Centre has contested their Indian citizenship. The government, however, had agreed to bring Sunali back on “humanitarian” grounds.
The two families, who were arrested on August 21 under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act in Bangladesh, got bail from Chapainawabganj district court on December 1. Thereafter, they stayed at the house of Faruk Sheikh, a relative of Sunali, after getting permission from the judge.
Speaking to The Indian Express on phone, Mofizul Islam, a Birbhum-based social worker who was present at Mahadipur, said, “After months of legal battle, we have been able to secure the return of Sunali and her son. Sunali’s husband and a woman and her two children are still there. We will not rest till we get them back.”
Islam had also visited Chapainawabganj to help the two families.
Samirul Islam, chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Labourers Welfare Board and Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP wrote on his X handle, “Finally, after a long battle against the Bangla-Birodhi Zamindars, Sunali Khatun and her minor son have returned to India. This day will be remembered as a historic moment that exposes the torture and atrocities inflicted on poor Bengalis. Sunali, who was pregnant at the time, was forcibly deported in June this year. After enduring six months of unimaginable suffering, she and her child have at last returned to their homeland.”
“Despite the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s clear order, the anti-poor central government failed to take any action over the past two days to ensure their immediate return. As a result, our advocates were compelled to mention the matter once again before the Supreme Court today. Only then was the return finally made possible,” Islam added.
Earlier, speaking to The Indian Express from Bangladesh, Sunali had claimed that she was nine months pregnant and wanted to give birth to her child in India. On September 26, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court had directed that the six members of the two families be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks.
On October 3, the senior judicial magistrate of the Chapainawabganj District Court had declared both families Indian citizens based on their Aadhaar cards and residential addresses, ordering they be sent back to India.
Later on Friday, Sunali and her son were handed over to the West Bengal Police who took her to the Malda Medical College hospital where the two will be kept under observation, officials said.
“We are following the instructions of the state government based on the Supreme Court order. The two will be kept under medical observation for at least 24 hours. We have formed a team of doctors who will evaluate her condition and do the needful. Though she is fine, she has blood deficiency. The doctors are taking care of it. If everything is alright, further steps will be taken,” Sudipto Bhaduri, Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH), Malda Medical College and Hospital, said.