The general secretary of the United liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), Anup Chetia, is likely to be extradited from Bangladesh soon.
leader of the pro-talk faction of the outfit said this on Wednesday after emerging from their meeting with the Union Home Ministry officials in New Delhi. Although the pro-talk faction leaders did not make any direct statement about the release of Chetia, yet they hinted that Chetia, who had been lodged in a jail in Bangladesh, would be extradited soon.
“The inputs that we are getting from that side (Bangladesh) suggest that he will be among us in near future,” said Ulfa’s pro-talk faction leader Sasha Choudhury. He also said that the talks are heading towards right direction.
Additional Director General of Assam police (Special Branch) Khagen Sarma, who attended the meeting, was equally optimistic. “The process for his (Chetia’s) extradition is on for quite sometime now and we are expecting it to complete soon,” Sarma said.
The assertions of Sarma as well as the Ulfa leader come amidst reports that Chetia could be extradited as early as by July 15 next.
Ever since it signed a peace agreement with the Government, the Ulfa has been pressing for the early extradition of Chetia. A founder leader of the outfit, Chetia was arrested in 1997 in Bangladesh. He was charged with illegally entering the country using a forged passport and possessing illegal foreign currency and arms. Subsequently, he was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a Bangladeshi court.
At the end of his jail term, India had asked Bangladesh for his extradition. But the request was turned down by the neighbouring country on the ground the two countries did not have an extradition treaty.
In 2008, Chetia had written to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees seeking refugee status and political asylum in Bangladesh. He is languishing in jail even after the completion of his term.