Sunali Khatun recalls Bangladesh jail horror after returning to India: ‘It was torture’
Pregnant Sunali Khatun was brought back to India few days ago after Supreme Court asked the government to bring her back on “humanitarian grounds”.
Sunali Khatun, the 26-year-old woman who was deported to Bangladesh earlier this year on suspicions of being a Bangladeshi national, recalled the horror of living in a solitary prison cell there. Khatun, who is now in the final stage of her pregnancy, was brought back to India few days ago after Supreme Court asked the government to bring her back on “humanitarian grounds”.
"It was a torture living in a solitary cell of the Bangladeshi prison," Khatun was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
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Over a hundred days in jail as ‘infiltrator’
She recounted the experience of spending over a hundred days at the Chapai Nawabgunj correctional facility, charged as an “infiltrator”. Khatun, who was repatriated through the Malda border on Friday, alongside her minor son Sabir now worries about her husband Danish, who, she says, was taken to some other place. Khatun is a migrant resident of Murarai in Birbhum and was arrested by Delhi Police in June this year on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national.
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"They allowed Sabir to stay with me. But my husband Danish was taken away elsewhere. 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 said, referring to the four other deportees who have been granted bail by a Bangladeshi court, but are yet to be repatriated. Khatun's family were deported along with three members of another family were arrested by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) under the country’s Control of Entry Act and jailed for illegally entering without travel documents.
Currently, Khatun will remain under observation of doctors at Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital till her expected delivery.
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A reunion and gratitude for CM Mamata
Officials said the BGB and India’s Border Security Force completed legal procedures on Friday evening to let Khatun and her minor son Sabir Sheikh enter India as ordered by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
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.
Khatun thanked Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her repatriation.
Court battles that secured Khatun's return
Long legal battles in India and Bangladesh finally culminated into Khatun's repatriation.
The Supreme Court in India observed that the matter demanded humanity over technicalities. The Centre has appealed against two orders of the Calcutta high court, which on September 26, directed that the six persons deported to Bangladesh on June 26 be brought back and given a full opportunity to prove their Indian citizenship, HT earlier reported.
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The high court had also passed a similar direction in a separate petition involving another woman, her husband and their minor son. They, too, were held from the Rohini area on June 24 and pushed across the border on June 26.
The row continues in the run-up to the 2026 state polls with TMC leaders calling their BJP counterparts Bangla-birodhi zamindars (anti-Bengali landlords).
TMC Rajya Sabha member Samirul Islam, who is providing legal assistance to the two families of migrant workers, said Khatun’s return marked a victory.
“Finally, after a long battle against the Bangla-Birodhi Zamindars, Sunali Khatun and her minor son have returned to India. This day will be remembered as a historic moment that exposes the torture and atrocities inflicted on poor Bengalis. Sunali, who was pregnant at the time, was forcibly deported in June this year,” Islam wrote on X.
According to the TMC, Sunali, her husband Danish Sheikh, their son and another couple, Sweety Bibi and Kurban Sheikh, and their minor son Imam Dewan are all residents of Birbhum in West Bengal. The families went to Delhi in search of employment and were picked up by police from the Rohini area on June 24.
Sunali Khatun’s father Bhadu Sheikh and Amir Khan, Sweety Bibi’s uncle, moved the high court days after the families were pushed into Bangladesh on June 26.'
With inputs from agencies
