‘She is pregnant, will they ever be home?’: Family of Sunali Khatun worries weeks after Calcutta HC and Bangladesh court order her return

For Bhodu Sheikh in Birbhum, it has been weeks of uncertainty over the fate of his daughter Sunali Khatun, her husband Danish, and their eight-year-old son — all lodged in a Bangladesh jail. “We have absolutely no information on my daughter, who is pregnant, and her husband and son. They are in a Bangladesh jail, and we do not know why they are not back home yet. The Calcutta High Court on September 26 ordered that they be brought back. Later, we heard that the Bangladesh court also ordered their pushback. But nothing has happened so far. We do not know whether she will ever return home,” he told The Indian Express over the phone.

Family members said that Sunali’s four-year-old daughter is with them, while her two other children are in the Chapainawabganj district jail in Bangladesh with her.

“It is difficult to keep the girl without her mother. She keeps asking and crying,” said Karishma Khatun, Sunali’s sister, speaking from Delhi where she works as a domestic help. “My sister is pregnant. We do not know if proper care is being taken. In such conditions, one needs to be at home with family. But she is in jail. Is she getting proper food, medical checkups, and doctors? We do not know. We are worried,” she said.

According to Sunali’s lawyer, they are likely to file a contempt petition before the Calcutta High Court if the Centre fails to act by October 26. “In its order, the High Court made it clear that it is mandatory to bring them back within four weeks. The order was passed on September 26, so the deadline is October 26. If the government fails, we will file a contempt petition. It will be a violation of the court’s order,” said advocate Raghunath Chakraborty.

TMC MP and West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board chairman Samirul Islam said, “We do not understand why the Centre is yet to bring its own citizens back home. The Calcutta High Court has given an order, and the Bangladesh court has stated they are Indians. The Centre first declared our own citizens, people from Bengal, as illegal Bangladeshis. Then, even after court orders, they seem reluctant to bring them back.”

On September 26, a division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Ritabrata Kumar Mitra directed that six members of two families from Birbhum — including Sunali — be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks. The bench observed, “We have said what steps have to be taken to return them. Four weeks’ time has been given.”

On October 3, the senior judicial magistrate of the Sadar Court in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh, declared both families as Indian citizens based on their Aadhaar cards and residential addresses in West Bengal, ordering their “pushback” to India. The order stated, “In this situation, for the matter of legal pushback to India and other official formalities, it is necessary to inform the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh.”

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

Another family — Sweety Bibi (32) and her two sons, aged six and sixteen, residents of Dhitora village under Murarai police station in Birbhum — were detained and deported at the same time.

Both families had been picked up by Delhi Police under the K N Katju Marg police station jurisdiction, accused of being illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, and deported. On August 21, they were arrested by police in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh, under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act and sent to jail after being produced before a local court.

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