In a significant reversal that exposes the perils of India’s ongoing anti-migrant crackdown, a Bangladeshi court has officially declared six persons pushed across the border by Indian authorities as Indian citizens, directing the Indian High Commission in Dhaka to ensure their safe repatriation.
The order, issued by the Senior Judicial Magistrate of the Sadar Court in Chapainawabganj on September 30, pertains to two families from Birbhum district, West Bengal, including 26-year-old Sunali (Sonali) Khatun, who is in her final trimester of pregnancy, her husband Danish Sheikh, their eight-year-old son Sabir, Sweety Bibi (32), and her two sons aged six and sixteen.
According to The Indian Express, the magistrate concluded that all six individuals are Indian citizens, citing their Aadhaar card numbers and residential addresses in West Bengal as documentary proof. The order was transmitted to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka for “appropriate diplomatic action.”
Families pushed out after police sweep in Delhi
As The Quint and The Times of India reported, the families were detained from Delhi’s Rohini area in June 2025, during a police drive against “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.” Despite presenting identity documents, Delhi Police allegedly ignored their Aadhaar cards and work records, branding them as foreigners. They were then forcibly pushed across the border in Assam on June 26, where they were arrested for “unlawful entry” and have since remained in Chapai Nawabganj jail.
Sunali’s father, Bhodu Sheikh, had filed a habeas corpus petition before the Calcutta High Court, expressing fear that his daughter’s unborn child would be rendered stateless. On September 26, a Division Bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra held that the Centre’s deportation order was illegal, castigating authorities for acting in “hot haste” and ordering the government to bring the families back within four weeks.
In Bhodu Sheikh v. Union of India & Ors., the Calcutta High Court quashed the deportation of three West Bengal residents — Sunali Khatun, her husband Danish Sheikh, and their minor son Sabir — who had been picked up by the Delhi Police during an “identity verification drive” on June 24, 2025, and deported to Bangladesh within forty-eight hours. The petitioner, Bhodu Sheikh, a resident of Birbhum, argued that his daughter and her family were Indian citizens by birth with roots and landholdings in West Bengal, and that Sunali was pregnant when she was detained. He alleged that the deportation was carried out without any inquiry, in violation of the Ministry of Home Affairs memo dated May 2, 2025, which mandates a 30-day verification process through the home State before any repatriation.
The Union of India, through the Additional Solicitor General, contended that the detainees had confessed to being Bangladeshi nationals who had entered India illegally in 1998 and had failed to produce documents proving citizenship. Rejecting this defence, the Bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra held that “suspicion, howsoever high, cannot be a substitute of actual proof,” and that a confession before a police officer “without any safeguards would be a direct infringement of Articles 14, 20(3), and 21 of the Constitution.” The Court pointed out glaring contradictions in the interrogation reports, noting that Sunali’s Aadhaar and PAN cards showed she was born in 2000, making it impossible for her to have entered India “illegally” in 1998.
Holding that the MHA memo was blatantly disregarded, the Court described the deportation as having been carried out “in hot haste,” and ruled that such acts “cripple the constitutional grant of fairness and reasonableness.” It emphasised that “the lifestyle of the people shapes the profile of the law and not vice versa,” and warned that executive discretion cannot be unfettered or whimsical. Consequently, the Court set aside the detention and deportation orders dated 24.06.2025 and 26.06.2025, directing the Union, FRRO Delhi, and Delhi Police to repatriate the family within four weeks through the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. A plea for stay was considered and rejected outright, underscoring the Bench’s message that liberty once lost must be swiftly restored.
Details of the said case may be read here.
“The People We Branded Bangladeshi Have Been Declared Indian by Bangladesh”
Reacting to the Bangladesh court’s decision, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, who also heads the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board, said the verdict exposed the Central government’s anti-Bengal bias and linguistic profiling.
“The very people whom our own country tried so hard to brand as Bangladeshi have now been proven to be Indians — not by us, but by Bangladesh. In a landmark verdict, a Bangladeshi court has not only declared them Indian citizens but even cited their Aadhaar card numbers and residential addresses as proof. The court’s order has been officially sent to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, directing that all of them — including the pregnant woman from Birbhum, Sonali Khatun — be safely sent back to India” Islam wrote on X, sharing a copy of the judgment.
His social media post may be read below:
Islam confirmed that his office arranged legal aid for the families in Bangladesh and that a copy of the judgment has already reached the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. However, he noted that the six remain jailed despite the clear directive for repatriation.
Pregnant woman’s plight deepens
Social worker Mofijul Sk, who has been coordinating their case from Chapainawabganj, told The Times of India that Sunali Khatun has been crying and pleading to return home. “She kept asking, ‘How long will I have to stay here? What is our fault? Please tell them I have a daughter waiting at home,’” Mofijul recounted.
Sunali reportedly fell and injured herself in jail but was denied an ultrasound since the prison hospital lacked adequate facilities. “She is depressed and physically weak,” said Mofijul, adding that the local Indian Deputy High Commission in Rajshahi has been informed of her condition.
Diplomatic delays and legal tangles
An Indian government official told TOI that repatriation may take time, arguing that “an Aadhaar card is not proof of Indian citizenship” and that a flag meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will be necessary before the transfer.
However, lawyer Saikat Thakurata, representing Sunali’s family in the Calcutta High Court, said the process cannot be delayed on “technical excuses,” as a Bangladeshi court itself has verified their Indian nationality. “Diplomatic coordination is needed, but every day of delay worsens their suffering,” he said (TOI, Scroll).
Pattern of targeting Bengali-speaking migrants
As Citizens for Justice and Peace has noted, this case forms part of a broader pattern since May 2025 when thousands of Bengali-speaking workers—mostly Muslims—were rounded up across BJP-ruled states, including Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, and asked to prove citizenship. Many were detained and deported without due process, based solely on linguistic identity.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing before the Supreme Court, had earlier described these deportations as “grossly unconstitutional.”
“This lady has been pushed out forcibly from the country while pregnant, without any proof that she is a foreigner,” Bhushan had argued before a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi, and Vipul Pancholi. “Authorities are treating the Bengali language itself as evidence of foreignness.”
Detailed reports on such illegal deportations may be read here, here and here.
Families await return amid bureaucratic silence
Meanwhile, Sweety Bibi’s brother Amir Khan told The Quint that the families have not heard any official update. “All she does is cry helplessly. No one from our village now dares to go to Delhi for work. But if we stay here, there is no work either,” he said.
Civil society activists, including Arnab Pal of the Migrant Workers’ Unity Forum, have urged the Indian government to expedite the repatriation, warning that delay could amount to criminal negligence, especially with Sunali nearing childbirth.
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