‘Acted in hot haste’: Calcutta HC orders return of Bengali migrants deported to Bangladesh
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Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has quashed the Union government’s deportation orders against two migrant worker families from West Bengal, directing that six individuals pushed into Bangladesh earlier this year be brought back to India within four weeks.
A division bench of Justices Reetobroto Mitra and Tapabrata Chakraborty, while hearing two habeas corpus petitions, held that the authorities had “acted in hot haste” and “admittedly did not follow” the Union home ministry’s May 2 guidelines on identifying and deporting undocumented foreigners.
The deported group includes 26-year-old Sunali Khatun from Birbhum district, who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. The court noted glaring inconsistencies in the official proceedings, observing that her interrogation report claimed she had crossed into India in 1998 even though her Aadhaar and PAN records proved she had not yet been born at that time.
Petitioners Bhodu Sekh and Amir Khan alleged that their relatives, who had moved to Delhi for employment, were detained in June, coerced into signing documents, and subsequently deported to Bangladesh through Guwahati.
The bench concluded that the deportations “raise a suspicion that the concerned authorities, while acting in hot haste, have clearly violated the provisions” of the May 2 instructions. It directed the Union government to coordinate with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and ensure the six deportees’ repatriation. A government plea to stay the order was rejected.
The ruling has triggered a political row. Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused the BJP of targeting Bengali speakers, saying, “They are arresting and detaining people just for speaking Bengali… along with the slap that the high court delivered today, they must also apologise.”
BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar described the deportations as “an awful mistake” and called Khatun’s case “collateral damage,” but maintained that “lakhs of Bangladeshi infiltrators cannot be allowed to stay in our country using this instance as a shield."
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21 hours raid fetch nothing for ED, claims Karnataka Cong MLA’s son
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Congress MLA N A Haris' son Mohammed Haris Nalapad on Tuesday claimed that the 21 hours of search by the ED in his house and other locations did not fetch anything.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided the premises of the two sons of Haris (Mohammed Haris Nalapad and Omar Farook Nalapad), Aqeeb Khan, grandson of ex-Union cabinet minister K Rahman Khan and an alleged crypto hacker named Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki in a crypto currency-linked money laundering case.
More than a dozen premises in the city have been covered as part of the action executed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"My grandfather is 89-year-old. There is not a single bad mark. My father (N A Haris) is a four-time MLA. There is not a single accusation against him. Their only intention was to target myself and my brother. As simple as that," Mohammed Nalapad, who is a former Karnataka Youth Congress president, told reporters.
According to him, the ED officials carried out raids for 21 hours.
"After 21 hours of search, they took away only two mobile phones from our house. They did not get a single paisa. The ED will testify it," the Congress leader said.
Exuding faith in the law, he said he is ready to fight the case in court.
"Me and my father have opted for politics and we are in public life. You can call me whatever you want but I have not done anything wrong," Mohammed Nalapad said.
Regarding his relationship with Sriki, he said he knew him but had no clue what he was doing.
"I have never said that either me or my brother do not know Sriki. But how will I know what he does in his house? Can his crimes be linked to us," he asked.
The money laundering case stems from some Karnataka Police FIRs and chargesheets filed in a 2017 case of hacking of national and international websites, stealing of bitcoins and sale of these 'stolen' virtual digital assets (VDA) through crypto platforms by the alleged hacker Sriki and his associates.
The Nalapad brothers and Aqeeb Khan are alleged to be the beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime generated through this alleged crypto-linked crime, the ED said.
