With the news of jailed Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia being brought back to India is spreading fast, his family members and the locals of his native village Jeraigaon are now eagerly waiting to see him.
Although the people in Jeraigaon — the native village of Chetia and elusive Ulfa Commander-in chief Paresh Baruah — have been upbeat to meet Chetia after about two decades, the family members complained that they have received no information so far about the extradition of the Ulfa leader.
“It’s a good thing that Anup Chetia is coming back. We saw it on the news since yesterday that he was brought to New Delhi. Everyone in the family are eagerly waiting to meet him,” said Suren Baruah, elder brother of Chetia alias Golap Baruah.
It may be mentioned here that Chetia and elusive commander in chief of the outfit Paresh Baruah are cousins and are neighbours in the village.
Chetia was arrested from a residence at Mohhamadpur area near Dhaka on December 21, 1997 for entering the country on fake documents, illegal possession of foreign currency, possession of arms and a satellite phone and subsequently sentenced to four, three and seven years of imprisonment by a court in the country.
Although Chetia had completed his jail term on 2007, he was kept in protective custody by the Bangladesh Government. Although Chetia tried to seek asylum in Bangladesh and or any other country till 2008, he seemed to have left the idea later and was trying to come back to Assam.
Although the Indian Government had been trying to extradite Chetia, it had not been possible due to presence of an extradition treaty between the countries. However, hope of Chetia’s extradition rekindled after the India and Bangladesh signed the extradition treaty during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the country in 2013.
It may be mentioned here that Chetia along with Bhimkanta Buragohain, Rajiv Rajkonwar alias Arabinda Rajkhowa, Samiran Gogoi alias Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreswar Gohain and Paresh Baruah formed Ulfa at Rangghar in Sivsagar on April 7, 1979.
The Bangladesh authorities had handed over Chetia to India authorities in the neighbouring country on Wednesday morning and he was brought back to Delhi the same day. Chetia is one of the founders of the separatist outfit and hence he is likely to play a major role in taking the peace process further to its desired goal.