Hasina govt hands over ULFA chief Anup Chetia

In what could be seen as a major boost to security cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, Bangladesh on Wednesday handed over leader of banned Assamese outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Anup Chetia to India, almost 18 years after it arrested him in a passport forgery case. 

ULFA leader Chetia was produced in court on Thursday, where he was sent on a six-day Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) transit remand. “Chetia has been booked by CBI in a 1988 murder case in Assam,” CBI sources said. The CBI has registered the case at the request of the Assam and the central governments. 

Bangladesh Rifles handed over ULFA general secretary Chetia to the Border Security Force at Dawki - a border centre between India and Bangladesh - in Meghalaya. The handover was done at the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and through active involvement of NSA Ajit Doval, according to officials in the government. 

Also known as Golap Barua, Chetia hails from Jerai Gaon in Tinsukia district of Assam. He was arrested in March 1991, but the then Assam chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia released him from jail, following which he fled India. In December 1997, Chetia was arrested by the Bangladesh police and subsequently sentenced to seven years by two courts for cross-border intrusion, carrying fake passports and illegal possession of foreign currency.

Chetia sought political asylum in Bangladesh thrice in 2005, 2008 and in 2011 after his 1997 arrest, but no final decision was taken by the Bangladesh government. After his prison sentence was over, he was being held in preventive detention as per a 2003 High Court order in Bangladesh hearing his plea for asylum.