United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) general secretary Anup Chetia, currently in jail in Bangladesh, will be deported to India by December, according to a senior official of the Union home ministry.
Joint secretary (northeast) Shambhu Singh said the government’s efforts in this regard had been positive. Chetia’s participation in government-Ulfa peace talks is considered essential because he is said to be the most prominent leader of the separatist outfit after Arabinda Rajkhowa, now in jail in India, and Paresh Baruah.
Chetia recently gave up his appeal for political asylum and now wants to return home.
Bangladesh has signed an extradition treaty with New Delhi, by which both countries have agreed to deport wanted ‘criminals’ hiding or lodged in jail.
Chetia was arrested in Dhaka on December 21, 1997, on charges of forging travel documents and possessing a satellite phone, currencies of 16 foreign countries and illegal arms. He had been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by a Bangladesh court. Though he had served his jail sentence for the offence till 2003, he is under detention.