In a significant development following a prolonged legal battle, a pregnant woman and her young son have finally returned to India, 162 days after being wrongfully deported to Bangladesh as alleged illegal immigrants. The return comes in compliance with a Supreme Court directive, though the ordeal continues for four other members of their group who remain stranded across the border.
The Long Road Back from Detention
Sunali Khatun, who was nine months pregnant at the time of her return, along with her eight-year-old son, were handed over to Indian authorities at the Mahadipur border outpost in Malda, West Bengal, on Wednesday evening. This followed a flag meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh. Their return marks a partial victory in a complex case of mistaken identity and wrongful deportation.
The families' nightmare began on June 26, when Sunali, her husband Danish Sheikh, their son, and another family—Sweety Bibi (32) and her two sons aged six and 16—were detained by Delhi Police under the KN Katju Marg police station limits. Accused of being illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, all six were subsequently pushed back into Bangladesh.
Legal Battles and Citizenship Proof
After being pushed back, the situation worsened for the families. On August 21, they were arrested by Chapainawabganj police in Bangladesh under the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act and sent to jail. A turning point came when, on October 3, the senior judicial magistrate of the Chapainawabganj District Court declared both families Indian citizens. The court based its decision on their Aadhaar cards and West Bengal addresses and ordered their legal pushback to India.
Prior to this, on September 26, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Ritabrata Kumar Mitra, had directed that all six members be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks. The families were granted bail by a Chapainawabganj district court on December 1 and had been living at the home of Sunali's relative, Faruk Sheikh, who was assigned their responsibility by the court.
A Partial Victory and Ongoing Struggle
While Sunali and her son are now back on Indian soil, the fight is far from over. Her husband, Danish Sheikh, and Sweety Bibi along with her two children, remain in Bangladesh. Social worker Mofizul Islam, a Birbhum resident who assisted the families in Chapainawabganj and was present at Mahadipur, stated, "After months of battle, we have been able to secure the return of pregnant Sunali and her son. Her husband and another family are still there. We will not rest till we get them back."
The families, originally from Birbhum district in West Bengal, are migrant labourers who had been working as ragpickers in Delhi for nearly two decades. Sunali had expressed her desperate wish to return to India to deliver her baby, highlighting the human cost of the administrative error.
The case has also drawn political commentary. Samirul Islam, the West Bengal migrant labourer welfare board chairperson and TMC Rajya Sabha MP, took to social media platform X to call it a "historic moment that exposes the torture and atrocities inflicted on poor Bengalis." He criticized the central government for delaying action despite the Supreme Court's clear order, noting that advocates had to mention the matter before the court again to facilitate the return.
This incident underscores the critical need for robust verification processes in deportation cases and highlights the severe humanitarian consequences when such processes fail. The focus now shifts to securing the safe return of the four remaining Indian citizens still awaiting repatriation from Bangladesh.
