‘Baby will get Indian citizenship even if it were born in Bangladesh’: pregnant Sunali Khatun’s lawyer after her parents’ names appear in the 2002 Bengal voter list

Raghunath Chakraborty said the names of Khatun’s parents – Bhodu Sheikh and Jyotsna Bibi – have been found in the 2002 voter list under the Murarai assembly segment in Birbhum district. Their polling station is Paikar Prathamik Vidyalaya in Paikar village, he added.

Meanwhile, the deadline set by the Calcutta High Court for the Centre to bring back Khatun and five others to India expired on October 24. On October 3, a court in Bangladesh also declared them as Indian citizens and ordered their ‘push back’.

Sunali Khatun, her husband, Danish, and their eight-year-old son were pushed into Bangladesh on June 26 after being detained by the Delhi Police. The family, migrant labourers from Bengal, had been working as ragpickers in Delhi for around 20 years.

Members of another family – Sweety Bibi, 32, and her two sons, aged six and 16 – originally residents of Dhitora village under Murarai police station in Birbhum, were also detained and deported at the same time. Both families were accused of being illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

On September 26, a Calcutta High Court division bench comprising Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Ritabrata Kumar Mitra directed that the six members of the two families – including Khatun – be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks.

“It is sad that despite the court order, Sunali and her family are yet to return home. Sunali being pregnant is a cause for concern too,” added Raghunath Chakraborty.

“It (Khatun’s parents’ names in 2002 voter list) is another slap for the Centre… it detained Sunali and others in Delhi and then drove them out of the country, labelling them as illegal Bangladeshis. This is just because they are poor Bengali-speaking migrants. Thereafter, despite the court order, the Centre is yet to bring them back,” said TMC MP Samirul Islam, who is also the chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board.

Speaking with The Indian Express from Paikar village in Birbhum district, Sunali Khatun’s parents shared their anxiety.

“Now our names are on the list. What more do I need to have my daughter and her family back home? The Calcutta High Court has ordered, and a court in Bangladesh has ordered (their return). But nothing has happened so far,” said Khatun’s father, Bhodu Sheikh.

Her mother, Jyotsna Bibi, said, “We are worried about her condition there. We don’t know what kind of care she is getting in jail in Bangladesh. She needs to return and deliver the child here. We are worried sick.”

Khatun’s parents have filed a contempt petition against the Centre at the Calcutta High Court for the government’s ‘failure’ to bring her back. Meanwhile, the Centre has moved the Supreme Court on the issue.