Bangladesh court recognises deported two Bengal families as ‘Indian citizens,’ directs High Commission to arrange their return

In its October 3 order, the Senior Judicial Magistrate of Sadar Court in Chapainawabganj in Bangladesh declared the families of Sunali Khatun and Sweety Bibi as Indian citizens, taking note of their Aadhaar cards and residential addresses in Birbhum district of West Bengal.
Noting that the group of six has a pregnant woman (Khatun) and children, the Bangladesh court directed the local administration to notify the Indian High Commission in Dhaka about it so that they could take an “appropriate action”.

“It has been found that all accused persons are Indian Aadhaar card holder citizens… This situation, the matter of legal push back to India and for other official formalities, it is necessary to inform the Indian High Commission in Dhaka,” the court’s order read.

Two months after the two families were pushed into Bangladesh, they were arrested by police in Chapainawabganj district of Bangladesh under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act.

Welcoming the Bangladesh court’s order, the chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board, Samirul Islam, said, “The very people whom our own country tried so hard to brand as Bangladeshi have now been proven to be Indians — not by us, but by Bangladesh… The Bangladesh court’s order has been officially sent to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, directing that all of them be safely sent back to India.”

Islam, who is also a Rajya Sabha member from the TMC, had helped the parents of Kahtun and Bibi to file habeas corpus petitions in the Calcutta High Court.

The TMC government in West Bengal has been opposing the Centre’s decision to deport migrant workers from the state to
Sunali Khatun, her husband Danish, and their eight-year-old son, originally hailing from Paikar village in Birbhum district of West Bengal were pushed into Bangladesh on June 26 after being detained by police in Delhi. The family had been working as ragpickers in Delhi for the last 20 years.

Another family — Sweety Bibi (32) and her two sons, aged 6 and 16, and residents of Dhitora village in Birbhum district — were detained and pushed into Bangladesh at the same time.

Both families were detained in Delhi as “Bangladeshi illegal infiltrators” and subsequently deported as “Bangladeshi citizens”.

Meanwhile, parents of Sonali Khatun and Sweety Bibi, with the help of West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board, filed habeas corpus petitions in the Calcutta High Court.

On September 26, the Calcutta High Court dismissed the Centre’s deportation order against the two migrant worker families, stating, “Acting in hot haste to deport them is a clear violation which renders the deportation order bad in law, and liable to be set aside.”

The Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Ritabrata Kumar Mitra had directed that the six members of the two families be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks. The court had also rejected the Centre’s request for a stay on the order.

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