Anup Chetia handed over to India: All you need to know about the ULFA leader

Chetia had been detained in Bangladesh in 1997 for illegally entering the country using a forged passport, and was found in possession of arms and foreign currencies.

Bangladesh on Wednesday extradited ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia to India, a demand the Indian government has been pursuing for the last two decades.

Chetia had been detained in Bangladesh in 1997 for illegally entering the country using a forged passport, and was found in possession of arms and foreign currencies. A Bangladesh court had then sentenced the militant leader to seven years in prison.

Here’s all you need to know about the ULFA leader

* Anup Chetia, whose real name is Golap Baruah, is a founding member of ULFA and its general secretary. He is also known as Sunil Baruah, Bhaijan or Ahmed.

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* Born in Jerai Gaon in Tinsukia district of Assam, Chetia fled from India in the early 1990s. He had been arrested in March 1991, but the then Assam chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia released him from jail, following which he fled from India.

* He is among Assam’s most wanted, for crimes pertaining to murder, abductions and extortion in India. As ULFA’s top leader, his main cause was the fight for the independence of Assam.

* Chetia was arrested by Bangladesh police in December 1997 and was subsequently handed seven years of jail terms by two courts for cross-border intrusion, carrying fake passports and illegally keeping foreign currencies.

* He had sought political asylum in Bangladesh thrice in 2005, 2008 and in 2011 after his 1997 arrest.

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* Despite the expiry of his term, Chetia was in jail under a 2003 High Court directive asking authorities to keep him in safe custody until a decision was taken on his asylum plea.

* While India has been demanding his extradition for over two decades, Bangladesh has refused to do so stating the absence of an extradition treaty

* In 2013, Chetia sent out a letter to some Bangladesh media houses saying, “the government of India has repeatedly failed in its attempt to extradite me to India. But now I have decided to my own initiative to go back to Assam. How long can I live in such a state of uncertainty?”

* India has been trying to get him back in the country so that he could join the on-going peace talks between the ULFA faction led by its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and the GoI.

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* Chetia was finally handed over to Indian officials by the Sheikh Hasina government following a written application from Chetia that he was keen to return to India.

* Chetia’s deportation follows that of underworld don Chhota Rajan, one of India’s most-wanted criminals, who was on the run for 27 years.

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