Every day that passes, every court hearing that raises “false hopes”, what they dread the most inches closer, says the family of Sunali Khatun. Pregnant when deported around five months ago, the 25-year-old could go into labour any time in the Bangladesh jail where she is lodged. As her lawyer in Bangladesh puts it, “a baby born in foreign land will further add to the legal complexities” around Sunali’s case.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court suggested to the Centre that the residents of Bengal deported to Bangladesh on the suspicion of being foreigners be brought back as an interim measure and given the opportunity of a hearing.
It asked for the Centre’s response, posting the matter for next hearing on December 1.
The case reached the Supreme Court after the Centre moved it following a Calcutta High Court order on September 26 ordering the return of Sunali, her husband Danish and their eight-year-old son, apart from three members of another family deported along with them.
Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Paikar village in Birbhum, a despondent Bhodu Sheikh, Sunali’s father, says: “First, the High Court ordered that they be brought back within four weeks. But that passed and nothing happened. Then a Bangladesh court declared them Indian citizens and ordered their pushback. Nothing happened. Now I hear the Supreme Court has asked the government to bring them back.”
Sheikh admits “a ray of hope” – but just. “It is the highest court of the country… However, we will not believe (she will return) until we see her in the flesh.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Sunali’s lawyer at the Chapainawabganj District Court in Bangladesh, Advocate Shofiq Enaetullah, says the Indian High Commission was sent a letter by the court seeking initiation of “the pushback process”. “On October 3, the court deemed Sunali and others as Indian citizens. The court sent a letter to The Indian Embassy in Dhaka… We fear that if the baby is born here, her nationality will come into question, and this will further delay Sunali’s return.”
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The court will hear the case next on November 30, and Enaetullah fears that “the framing of charges will start soon”. “After that, if a guilty verdict is given, the issue worsens. Under the sections that she and the others are charged, they will be in jail for a year. Then repatriation or pushback will not be possible until they have served their sentence.”
On Sunali’s condition, the lawyer adds: “All care is being taken by the authorities regarding the health of every one, including children.”
Mofizul Islam, a social worker whom Sunali’s family knows and who is in Chapainawabganj helping with the court proceedings, says: “We have information that she underwent an ultrasound recently, and that the baby is okay. But we are yet to get her medical report.”
Islam says he met Sunali and the others at the court on November 20. “She was crying. She wants desperately to return home, and to deliver the baby in India because she has heard that otherwise it would be tough for her to go back. She also said the jail authorities were taking good care of her.”
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Islam says they have employed three lawyers, and provided clothes for the winter to the imprisoned. “We have deposited 9,000 Bangladeshi Taka so that they can eat better food through the jail canteen.”
A senior officer at the Chapainawabganj District Jail says on the condition of anonymity: “Sunali is healthy and doing fine. We have doctors inside the jail who are monitoring her. If needed, we can take her to hospital.”
But the family itself has not had any contact with Sunali, barring that one time when, soon after deportation, she managed to talk to them using someone’s phone. “After she was arrested, we lost contact. But we have heard she underwent an ultrasound… We do not know what kind of care she is getting. The only thing we have is court dates after court dates,” says Sunali’s sister Karishma, who lives at Rohini in Delhi with their mother Jyotsnara Bibi and Sunali’s five-year-old daughter.
While Karishma works as a domestic help to make a living, Jyotsnara sells utensils.
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On June 26, the families of Sunali and of Sweety Bibi, including her sons aged six and 16, had been picked up by Delhi Police on suspicion of being illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Migrant labourers from Bengal, they had been working as ragpickers in Delhi for around 20 years, the families say. They were later pushed into Bangladesh.
On August 21, they were arrested in Chapainawabganj by the Bangladesh Police under the Passport Act and Foreigners’ Act.
On September 26, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court directed that Sunali, Sweety Bibi and their families be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks.
In its order of October 3, the District Court in Chapainawabganj declared that both families seemed to be Indian citizens based on their Aadhaar cards and residential addresses in West Bengal, and directed their “pushback” into India. The order added, “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.”
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Taking note of the Supreme Court posting the matter for December 1 now, Samirul Islam, the Chairman of the West Bengal Welfare Board and TMC Rajya Sabha MP, who is helping the families in their legal battle, posted on X: “This comes despite the Calcutta High Court’s earlier order directing the Centre to bring them back within four weeks — an order that was never complied with.”
Karishma says she along with her family went back to Birbhum after Sunali’s arrest, fearful of action against them. Soon after, they returned, to keep their jobs. “Sunali’s daughter cries for her every night. It has been months since she saw her mother, father and brother.”
Sweety Bibi’s brother Amir Khan has pinned his hopes on the Supreme Court. “I do not know how my sister and her children are. I worry for the children. What wrong did they do? Is it because they went to work in Delhi?”
