Sunali Khatun, a 26-year-old pregnant woman who had been deported to Bangladesh on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national earlier this year, returned to India on Friday through the Mahadipur border in West Bengal’s Malda district.
Sunali, a migrant resident of Murarai in Birbhum who is in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was repatriated alongside her minor son Sabir, following a Supreme Court directive, which asked the government to bring her back on “humanitarian grounds”.
She was admitted to the Rampurhat hospital in Birbhum on Saturday, where she will remain under the observation of doctors till the expected childbirth happens later this month or the beginning of next.
It Was A Torture
She recounted the experience of spending over a hundred days at the Chapai
Nawabgunj correctional facility, charged as an “infiltrator”.
“It was torture living in a solitary cell of the Bangladeshi prison,” Sunali told news agency PTI.
She also raised concern about her husband Danish, who, she said, was taken to some other place.
“I am worried about him since he is yet to be brought back. I also worry about Sweety Bibi and her children since their fates also remain uncertain,” she told the news agency, referring to the four other deportees who have been granted bail by a Bangladeshi court, but are yet to be repatriated.
Khatun’s six-year-old daughter Afreen was reunited with her brother and mother on Friday as she escaped the deportation because she was living with her grandparents in Murarai when rest of the family was picked up and sent to Bangladesh.
“That’s my mother,” she said, pointing towards Sunali, who was being escorted to the delivery ward in the second floor of the building by hospital staff, grinning from ear to ear.
“I am so happy to be reunited with my girl and my parents. This wouldn’t have happened without Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s support,” Sunali said, adding she felt no major physical discomfort apart from a tinge of worry for her unborn child.
Eight-year old Sabir, on the other hand, acted all grown up.
“I have a bit of a throat ache. But, I am fine otherwise,” he said, bemused at the media attention on his mother.
Hospital authorities said that they would allow both Sunali’s children and her mother, Jyotsna Bibi, to stay at the medical facility till she is discharged following her delivery.
Supreme Court’s Order Brought Her Back
Khatun’s case gained national attention after the pregnant woman, her husband Danish Sekh, their son Sabir, and three others were deported to Bangladesh in June on allegations of being infiltrators.
They were arrested by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) under the country’s Control of Entry Act and jailed for illegally entering without travel documents.
Sunali’s family filed a petition pleading for her return, arguing that her separation from her husband and the risks associated with giving birth in a foreign country constituted extreme hardship.
The Supreme Court, hearing the matter on Wednesday, took a sympathetic view of her plight. It “nudged the central government to permit her re-entry on humanitarian grounds”, acknowledging the exceptional circumstances of her pregnancy and the right of the family to remain unified. The court’s approach focused less on the technicalities of immigration law and more on the constitutional and humane dimensions of the situation.
The SC also orally suggested that Sunali’s citizenship could be verified based on her father Bhodu Sekh’s citizenship documents.
Following the court’s strong suggestion, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs quickly coordinated the necessary arrangements for her return.
Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam, who steered the legal battle for Sunali and the five other deportees, described her return as “a victory of the oppressed against the might of the central government”.
“They not only pushed an Indian citizen illegally to Bangladesh to fulfil a communal agenda, the Centre went to great lengths to try and stop her from returning. But, this is only half the battle won. The next challenge is to bring back the four others, who still remain stuck on the other side of the border,” he said, after handing over Sunali to the hospital authorities.
(With inputs from agencies)
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