Assam teen, considered a Bangladeshi for 6 years, freed. He had made one mistake

The 15-year-old who has been living with mental illness, ran away from home in 2015 after a particularly harsh scolding by his father who told him to go to Bangladesh.

SILCHAR: A 22-year-old man walked out of the Silchar detention centre for illegal immigrants for Bangladeshi nationals this week, seven years after he ran away from home in Guwahati upset over his father losing his temper. “Leave us and go to Bangladesh,” his father told him in a fit of anger.

The Assam teenager, who was taken into custody in 2015, walked out of Silchar jail and detention centre this week as a 22-year-old. (HT Photo)

The man, then just a 15-year-old, stormed out of the house and boarded a train from Guwahati railway station. But when he was stopped during routine checking by a railway police officer, the 15-year-old, a child living with mental illnesses, told him that he was going to Bangladesh.

The officer suspected that he was from Bangladesh. He was detained and told to produce documentation to establish his Indian citizenship. On January 21, 2016, Judicial Magistrate First Class-II of Karimganj district declared the teenager a foreigner because he didn’t have documents to show and also couldn’t give any specific information about his family. The authorities tried to deport him twice to Bangladesh but Dhaka blocked it because it wasn’t able to confirm that he was a citizen.

“My one remark (telling his son to go to Bangladesh) destroyed his life and he ended up in jail.” said his father, who helps at a shop in Guwahati.

The father said his son ran away from home in the past also but they had been able to trace him.

The first time that he heard about his son’s detention and the court verdict declaring him a foreigner was some time before the authorities tried to deport him. “After more than a year, I received the call from Silchar Central Jail from somebody who said that my son has been declared a Bangladeshi and he will be deported soon,” the father said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

The family tried to move the Gauhati high court to seek their son’s release but he asked for ₹1 lakh for every hearing. They couldn’t afford to pay such a heavy price for their son’s freedom. But then they came across a lawyer who was willing to fight for his son without a charge.

“Our son is free because of our lawyer,” the father said

To be sure, the Gauhati high court is still to rule on the 22-year-old’s citizenship.

But he was ordered to be released by the high court after lawyer P Agarwal moved a separate application against his continued detention. She told the special bench of justices Kotiswar Singh and Nani Tagia that the young man was convicted for entering the country illegally from Bangladesh and sentenced to a year in prison. He was never released because he was considered to be a Bangladeshi national and a foreigner. But he was really an Indian citizen.

In view of the “peculiar” circumstances of this case, the bench asked the District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) of both Cachar and Kamrup districts to verify whether the young man is the son of the petitioner. Both of them reported back to the high court that there was adequate documentary evidence to establish that the petitioner was the detainee’s mother.

“Under the circumstances, we are of the view that this matter would require proper examination as the petitioner has sought for quashing of the entire proceedings in GR Case No.39/2016. The Public Prosecutor B Bhuyan also agreed that considering the reports of both DLSAs indicating that the petitioner is the mother,” the high court said, directing the authorities to hand over the man’s custody to his parents.

“Nobody can understand what a mother goes through when her son, who is not typical, is declared a foreigner. I wish no mother in the world goes through what I have faced,” said the mother after her son walked out of the detention centre.

Social activist Sadhan Purkayastha who supported the family during the entire proceedings said the Assam man’s conviction as a foreigner and being classified as a Bangladeshi national demonstrates the failure of the entire system.

“This family sought help from human rights commissions and so many people, but nobody stood by them. They are financially weak and the boy is going through a severe medical issue which was ignored by the entire system. This exposes how incompetent we are as a society,” Purkayastha said.

The high court will hear the min petition challenging the order declaring the young man a foreigner on May 5, 2022.