Centre ignoring HC order to repatriate six Bengal migrants wrongfully deported to B’desh: TMC

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday accused the BJP-led Centre of failing to comply with the Calcutta High Court’s order to return six individuals, including the pregnant Sonali Khatun, who were wrongfully deported to Bangladesh.

The High Court had directed on September 26 that the individuals be brought back to India within four weeks, a deadline that TMC said expired on Friday without action.

A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra had set aside the Central government’s order to deport them and set a deadline of four weeks to bring them back.

In its order, the High Court division bench had asked the central government to make necessary correspondence with the High Commission in Dhaka to facilitate the repatriation process.

Criticising the Centre, Trinamool asked: “Does being in power give @BJP4India the licence to flout a High Court order? To ignore the suffering of women and children? To turn ordinary citizens into bargaining chips in a vindictive, performative game of power?”

In a statement, Trinamool said: “First these hapless people were branded Bangladeshis and dumped across the border. Then, after a long legal battle, the court found otherwise and ordered their repatriation.

The Indian High Commission in Dhaka was asked to facilitate repatriation. But the Centre has shown no urgency, no humanity, and no basic decency to bring them home,” Trinamool said in a statement.

TMC added: “Under the leadership of Smt. @MamataOfficial and Shri @abhishekaitc, we will not let this atrocity stand. We will keep fighting, legally, politically, and morally, until every wronged person is safely back on Indian soil. BJP’s hubris will be their undoing. In 2026, the people of Bengal will deliver the ultimate verdict.”

Incidentally, a Bangladesh court last month ruled that six persons, including a pregnant woman, who were picked up from New Delhi and pushed into Bangladesh in June this year, were Indian citizens and should be sent back and directed that the matter be forwarded to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka for further action.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam said: “The unfortunate thing is that even after the court’s deadline, the central government’s representatives have taken no initiative to bring them back….Strange, isn’t it?

Senior TMC leader Sashi Panja said: “Now, the Bangla-birodhis are refusing to comply with the court’s order to bring back Sonali Khatun and the others to India.”