KOLKATA: Birbhum resident Sunali Khatun, nine months and 12 days pregnant, returned to India along with her son, Shabir, 8, on Friday evening, six months after the family’s ordeal began with Delhi Police detaining them as “illegal immigrants”, BSF pushing them into Bangladesh, and authorities there jailing them for illegal entry.Mother and son entered Bengal through the Mahadipur border checkpoint in Malda around 7pm and were received by zilla parishad sabhadhipati Lipika Ghosh and other Trinamool functionaries. Officials took them to Malda Medical College and Hospital, where doctors ran tests to decide when she can travel four-and-a-half hours by road to reach her home in Birbhum.Sunali was unwell & crying… I’m worried, says her motherBangladeshi couple Farooq and Mumtaj Hossain, who hosted Sunali Khatun and her family after they received bail a few days ago, said doctors in Chapai Nawabganj had planned to induce labour. They abandoned the plan when Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said she needed to be handed over to BSF immediately. Sunali’s husband Danish Sk remains in Bangladesh, awaiting completion of repatriation formalities along with fellow Birbhum resident Sweety Biwi & her two sons.All six were deported on June 26 despite having Aadhaar and other identity documents, their lawyers said. Sunali, Danish and Sweety had been earning a living as ragpickers in Delhi when they were rounded up on June 17 on suspicion of being Bangladeshis living illegally in India. With 26-year-old Sunali’s repatriation getting delayed despite Supreme Court’s Dec 3 directive to govt to ensure her return “during the course of the day”, her counsel had mailed the court’s registry early Friday for an urgent hearing by the bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.Things began to move around 3.30pm after a BGB team and Indian embassy officials reached Chapai Nawabganj to escort Sunali and her child from the house where they were being kept, till the international border. Rampurhat chief medical officer Sovan De said all possible medical arrangements were made for Sunali’s arrival in Birbhum. Social worker Mofijul Sk, who was in Bangladesh to facilitate her return, said an ambulance would take her from Malda to her home once doctors certified her fit to travel.Sunali’s mother Jyotsna and her daughter Anisha returned to their Birbhum home from Delhi on Friday. Both had travelled to the national capital for the SC hearing on Dec 3. “We boarded a train from Delhi as soon as we were told Sunali was coming back. I am worried about her health. She was feeling unwell and crying when I spoke to her at noon,” Jyotsna said. West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board chairperson Samirul Islam, who led the legal battle for Sunali’s repatriation, wrote on X that her return would be remembered as “a historic moment that exposes the torture and atrocities inflicted on poor Bengalis”.(With inputs from Subhro Maitra in Malda and S Boral in Suri)
