‘A child without a name yet’: Why Sunali, kin look up to Supreme Court & Bangladesh for the father’s return

A pregnant Sunali, her husband, and her eight-year-old son were among the two families who were detained in Delhi as infiltrators on June 18 and “pushed back” into Bangladesh.

On December 5, after spending 162 days in Bangladesh, including over three months in jail, following a Supreme Court order, she and her children were brought back to India. However, Danish Sheikh and another Bengali family, Sweety Bibi with her two children, remained in Bangladesh.

Sharing his concerns, Sunali’s father Bhodu Sheikh said: “Our struggle is yet to end. We are looking up to the Supreme Court hearing tomorrow, where the matter of Danish and that of another family will be heard. How can Sunali be happy if her husband remains in Bangladesh?”

“We are not naming the baby yet. Sunali expressed her desire that Abhishek Banerjee (TMC national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP) would name the baby. We are waiting for his consent and arrival here,” added Jyotsnara Bibi.

“I am happy that we have a baby. She suffered so much during pregnancy, after being pushed into Bangladesh, including roaming the streets and spending time in jail. But I am not there to see the baby’s face, nor can I be with my wife. Don’t know what will happen to me and others who are confined in a house here in Bangladesh,” Danish Sheikh told The Indian Express from Chapainawabganj district in Bangladesh.

According to a family friend, Sunali gave birth to a baby boy around 11.15 am on Monday after doctors opted for a cesarean procedure.
“Both mother and baby are healthy. The baby weighs 2.5 kg and has been kept at neonatal care,” said Mofizul Islam, a social worker and a family friend who went to Chapainawabganj to help both families in the court case.

“It is tragic that her husband is still in Bangladesh along with another family. We called up her husband, and he was crying over the phone,” he added.

Meanwhile, Samirul Islam, chairman of West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board and TMC Rajya Sabha MP, called it a “moral victory”.

“We were concerned about the baby being born in a foreign country. Even Sunali wanted her baby to be born here. The Bengal government has provided all the help to her and her family. We are standing by her side. Moreover, her husband, another family of a woman and her two children, who were all in the same group, are still detained in Bangladesh. We are fighting for them in the Supreme Court. We are hopeful that during the January 6 hearing, the Supreme Court will give them relief,” Islam added.

How the case unfolded

On June 18, Birbhum resident Sunali Khatun’s family, along with another family, that of Sweety Bibi (32) and her two sons, aged six and sixteen (hailing from Dhitora village in Birbhum) were picked up by police in Delhi.

On June 26, all of them together were ‘pushed back’ to Bangladesh after being declared as illegal immigrants. Both families, accused of being illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, had been picked up by the Delhi Police under the K N Katju Marg police station jurisdiction.

Both families loitered on the streets of Dhaka and later went to Chapainawabganj district. On August 21, they were arrested by police in Chapainawabganj under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act and sent to jail after being produced before a local court.

On September 26, a division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Ritabrata Kumar Mitra directed that the six members of two families from Birbhum, including Sunali, be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks.

On October 3, the senior judicial magistrate of the District Court in Chapainawabganj 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.”

On December 1, Sunali, Danish, Sweety and the children got bail from Chapainawabganj district court. The two families, after getting bail from court, had been residing at the house of Faruk Sheikh (a relative of Sunali) to whom the court gave responsibility.