A day after Bangladesh handed over founder-member of banned United liberation Front of Asom (UlFA) terror group Anup Chetia to India, New Delhi reciprocated by deporting the neighbouring country’s most wanted criminal Nur Hossain from Kolkata jail.
Chetia was brought here on Wednesday and the CBI formally arrested him on Thursday in connection with a nearly three-decade-old murder case registered by the Central probe agency.
One of Bangladesh’s most wanted criminals Hossain was released on Thursday evening from Dum Dum Central jail to be deported to Dhaka to face trial in connection with the killing of seven people in Narayanganj District adjacent to the country’s capital in 2014.
A Kolkata court had last month ordered the deportation of Hossain to Bangladesh but his release from prison comes just a day after Chetia’s return. The move clearly signals an exchange of most wanted criminals by the two countries.
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was quoted in the local media there as saying that “we will bring him back when the Government of that country tells us he has been freed...
We will receive him at the border just the way we left Anup Chetia there”. He, however, said this should not be seen as a quid pro quo as “Chetia had been handed over to India as per his own wish”.
In a brief statement, the CBI said that Chetia, whose real name is Golap Baruah, was placed under arrest in connection with the murder case which was handed over to the CBI by the Assam Government in 1988.
“He was produced before the competent court here which sent him to six days of transit remand to the CBI,” the agency said. Sources pointed out that he will be taken to Guwahati.
Chetia’s return to the country comes as a major blow to the anti-talks faction of UlFA, headed by Paresh Baruah. Chetia has reportedly expressed his willingness to be part of the peace process undertaken by the Centre with the pro-talks faction headed by UlFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa.
Chetia’s return is expected to strengthen the pro-talks faction as it will add to the list of leaders who have come over ground in the last few years including Sasha Choudhury, Mrinal Hazarika, Chitraban Hazarika, Raju Baruah and Pranati Deka among others.
The CBI is probing the murder of ex-Councillor of Golaghat (Assam) Deboksi Dhar Chowdhury. He was killed by UlFA rebels on August 29, 1986 and Chetia is alleged to be involved in its criminal conspiracy.
The 48-year-old Chetia was arrested in Bangladesh in 1997 and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for carrying foreign currency, a satellite phone and traveling on a fake passport besides cross-border intrusion. In India, Chetia is wanted for killings, abductions, bank robberies and extortion activities.
After his sentence was over, India had been pressing for his deportation which, however, was stalled after he petitioned the High Court (HC) there seeking political asylum.
The HC there had directed the authorities to keep Chetia in safe custody till his petition was decided upon.
Bangladesh media quoted Kamal as saying that the Border Guard Bangladesh handed over Chetia along with two others to the Border Security Force of India as their jail terms ended and Chetia himself withdrew his petition that he filed earlier with the HC seeking political asylum.
“I am going back willingly and consciously and in good health,” the Minister quoted Chetia as saying.
India had been repeatedly demanding Chetia’s deportation for nearly two decades but successive Governments in Bangladesh had cited the HC ruling and Chetia’s petition seeking political asylum there.
The deportation comes days after fugitive underworld don Chhota Rajan was brought to India from Indonesia after 27 years.
Chetia was in Bangladesh ever since he fled India in the early 1990s. He had been arrested in March 1991 but the then Assam Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia released him from jail, following which he fled from India.
Chetia, along with Bhim Kanta Buragohain, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreshwar Gohain and Paresh Baruah, formed the UlFA on April 7, 1979, at the 18th century amphitheatre Rang Ghar in Sivasagar to establish a “sovereign socialist Assam” through an armed struggle.
A tweet posted on the official account of the Prime Minister’s Office says when Modi called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Diwali, he thanked her “for the help in fighting terrorism.”
The seven victims of the alleged massacre by Hossain were first kidnapped by the assailants from river port city of Narayanganj on April 27, 2014 and their nearly decomposed bodies were retrieved from the Shitalakya River five days later.
The incident had sparked a massive public outcry in Bangladesh as the families of the victims alleged several personnel of elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion were involved in the murders.
It had embarrassed Sheikh Hasina’s Government because Hossain is a local Awami league leader and prompted it to immediately sack two Army and Navy officers.
Hossain and two other Bangladeshi nationals were arrested on June 15 in Kolkata for not having valid documents for entering India. All three are currently in police custody.