Sunali Khatun, a migrant worker from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who was deported to Bangladesh last year and brought back following a Supreme Court order, gave birth to a baby boy on Monday morning at Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital, hospital sources said.
According to Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, both the mother and the newborn are stable. “I have spoken to the doctors at the hospital. They have told me that both mother and the infant are stable and are doing fine,” Islam told PTI.
Sunali, a resident of Murarai in Birbhum, was arrested by Delhi Police in June last year on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national. She was subsequently pushed across the border to Bangladesh, even though she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.
Following a Supreme Court directive on 5 December, which took note of her condition, Sunali was repatriated to India through the Malda border last month along with her minor son Sabir.
During her stay in Bangladesh, Sunali was lodged at the Chapai Nawabganj correctional facility along with five others, including her son and husband Danesh, after being labelled “infiltrators”.
The family had been detained since August 20 before a judicial magistrate granted them bail on December 1. While Sunali and her son have returned, her husband Danesh and three members of the family of Sweety Bibi are yet to be brought back.
Their cases remain part of an ongoing legal battle at the Supreme Court. Reacting to the birth of Sunali’s child, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee described it as a moment of relief after months of hardship.
“I am deeply moved and genuinely heartened to learn that Sunali Khatun has given birth to a healthy baby boy at Rampurhat Medical College, Birbhum. This moment of joy feels even more profound against the backdrop of the injustice she was subjected to. In a shocking abuse of power, she was FALSELY BRANDED as a Bangladeshi and FORCIBLY DEPORTED TO BANGLADESH by the Delhi Police and the Union Government,” Banerjee wrote on X.
He said he would visit the hospital on Tuesday to meet Sunali and her newborn.
“Her ordeal was a violation of dignity that no citizen, least of all a pregnant mother, should ever be forced to endure. Yet, through it all Sunali displayed extraordinary courage and resolve. This is a triumph of humanity. Tomorrow, during my visit to Birbhum, I will personally meet Sunali at the hospital to convey my best wishes to her and her newborn. My prayers remain with her family,” Banerjee added.