In what could provide a big electoral fodder for the Trinamool Congress ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections, the Calcutta High Court on Friday ruled the deportation of two families from Birbhum district to Bangladesh as illegal, directing the Union Government to repatriate them within four weeks. The two families that worked as rag-pickers in Delhi were picked up on June 25 and were pushed back to the neighbouring country, terming them as “illegal immigrants.”
A Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty passed the order — in connection with a writ of habeas corpus filed by Bhodu Sheikh, the father of one of the victims, saying that the deported persons, including Sonali Bibi, Sweety Bibi and four other deported family members, including three children, should be brought back to India within four weeks. Sonali, who was presently nine months pregnant, hailed from Murarai in Birbhum district. Soon after the order was passed, Trinamool Congress national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee hit out at the saffron leadership, saying “the order is a slap on the BJP’s face,” adding “now their leaders, including Amit Shah, who is responsible for such acts, should apologise not only to the families of the victims but also before the nation.”
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, who had been fighting the case for the victims’ families too, accused the BJP of its “anti-Bengali agenda”, writing on the X, “today the Calcutta High Court tore apart the BJP’s sham - their attempt to brand pregnant Birbhum resident Sonali Khatun and five others (including children) as ‘Bangladeshi nationals’ was exposed as a lie.” When contacted, Union Minister and Bengal BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar said that Friday’s order could be challenged in the Supreme Court. “Though I have not seen the order, the Centre will take the appropriate decision on it, maybe by challenging it in the Supreme Court because there have been instances when many Calcutta High Court orders have been turned down by the Supreme Court.”