Kolkata: A pregnant migrant worker from West Bengal, Sunali Khatun, remains trapped in a Bangladesh jail after being deported by Indian authorities earlier this year under the charge of being an “infiltrator.” Her ordeal continues despite a Calcutta High Court order on September 26 directing her repatriation within a month along with her husband, child, and companions.
Khatun, who had lived in Delhi for over two decades working as a domestic help, was detained by Delhi Police on June 17 along with her husband Danish Sheikh, their eight-year-old son, and family friends. The group was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) and forcibly sent across the border. According to witness accounts, they were made to wade through chest-deep water under threat and assault before being pushed into Bangladesh.
Now lodged in Chapai Nawabganj jail, Khatun faces trial there, with her next hearing scheduled for October 23. Local contacts report that she recently suffered a fall and has not received adequate medical care or an ultrasound for her unborn child. “She fell in the jail courtyard and got injured. The doctor only gave her some medicine,” said Mofizul Sheikh, a villager from her hometown who is monitoring her case.
Her father, Bhadu Sheikh, who filed the habeas corpus petition that led to the court ruling, waits anxiously in Birbhum. “We have four generations of documents proving our Indian citizenship,” he said, gasping for breath from chronic asthma. “We were punished for speaking Bengali. I want my daughter back before I die.”
This is an updated story following up from https://radiancenews.com/calcutta-high-court-quashes-deportation-of-west-bengal-family-to-bangladesh/
