The subjail in Islampur where Roy is currently lodged and the resident certificate (top) issued by the Thakurganj block. Pictures by Mehedi Hedaytullah

Islampur, March 2: A mentally unstable youth, allegedly from Bihar, was declared a Bangladeshi infiltrator and has been incarcerated in the sub-jail here awaiting to be handed over to the authorities in Dhaka.

A lawyer, Firoz Ahmed Bobby, has filed a case to get 27-year-old Manoj Kumar Roy freed from jail in the fast track court of the additional district and session’s judge. The lawyer said Manoj had served the two-year term he was sentenced to and his family members were anxious that he would soon be “pushed back” into Bangladesh.

The BSF jawans had caught Manoj, whose serial number in the voters’ list is 934, wandering near the Sonmati border outpost in March 2005 and handed him over to the police. “The copy of the FIR filed by the BSF after the arrest mentioned the youth’s name as Manoj Kumar Roy, a resident of a village in the Sukhani area of Bangladesh’s Thakurgaon district,” the lawyer said.

He said the court records showed that Manoj was guilty of infiltration and was sentenced to two years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 in September 2008. Since the youth was in jail while the trial was on, he had served his sentence.

Firoz, who got to know about the youth’s plight and had decided to render his services for free, said Manoj was a resident of Tatpeoa in the Sukhani police station area of Bihar’s Kishanganj district and had gone missing in January 2005.

He said Manoj’s sister Rina Devi had filed an FIR in the Sukhani police station reporting that he had gone missing. “A person from Tatpeoa who had served a sentence in the same jail went to Manoj’s house to tell his family that he had met him there. Manoj’s family could not engage a lawyer. I recently came to know about the case and decided to take it up voluntarily,” Firoz said.

The lawyer said he has submitted the residential certificate issued by the Thakurganj block and copies of the voters’ list and the FIR.

Explaining how the goof-up took place, the lawyer said Manoj was of unsound mind. “There is a Thakurgaon district in Bangladesh and Manoj’s house is located in Thakurganj block of Kishanganj. That is where the BSF, hearing the youth’s inconsistent mental frame of mind branded him a Bangladeshi,” Firoz said.

Rina Devi said her brother has been mentally unstable since childhood. “He runs away from home and roams around and returns after a few days. But in 2005 when he did not come back even after a week, I filed a missing diary,” she said.

Firoz said Manoj had been in and out of hospital during his stay in jail. “I have requested the court to consider the truth regarding Manoj’s citizenship and put off the push-back till such time,” the lawyer said.

Government lawyer Prafulla Kumar Mondol said Manoj was sentenced, as he pleaded guilty before the judge. “The judge had asked him whether the charges framed against him were true and he answered in the positive. Moreover no one appeared for him,” Mondol said.

Firoz also criticised the court for not appointing a lawyer from the legal aid cell for Manoj. “Each year lakhs are budgeted for legal aid, and this is what goes on,” Firoz said.