Six-year old Afreen giggled nonstop even as her mother, Sunali Khatun, was wheeled into the Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
The winter chill of the Bengal countryside had begun to set in while media cameras clicked relentlessly.
Sunali, a migrant resident of Murarai in Birbhum and in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was arrested by Delhi Police in June on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national and was pushed to the neighbouring country.
She was repatriated through the Malda border on Friday along with her minor son Sabir following a Supreme Court directive.
She was admitted to the Rampurhat hospital on Saturday, where she will remain under observation until her expected childbirth later this month or early next month.
"It was a torture living in a solitary cell of the Bangladeshi prison," Sunali told PTI from her hospital bed, recounting the experience of spending over a hundred days at the Chapai Nawabgunj correctional facility, charged as an "infiltrator".
"They allowed Sabir to stay with me. But my husband Danesh was taken away elsewhere. I am worried about him since he is yet to be brought back. I also worry about Sweety Bibi and her children since their fates also remain uncertain," she said, referring to the four other deportees who have been granted bail by a Bangladeshi court, but are yet to be repatriated.
Afreen, who has lost her milk teeth, held tightly to her brother Sabir at the hospital’s gynecology and maternity ward.
She met him after five months, unaware of why she had been separated from him and her parents.
She escaped deportation because she had been living with her grandparents in Murarai when her parents were arrested in Delhi.
"That's my mother," she said, pointing towards Sunali, who was being escorted to the delivery ward in the second floor of the building by hospital staff, grinning from ear to ear.
"I am so happy to be reunited with my girl and my parents. This wouldn't have happened without Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's support," Sunali said, adding she felt no major physical discomfort apart from a tinge of worry for her unborn child.
Eight-year old Sabir, on the other hand, acted all grown up.
"I have a bit of a throat ache. But, I am fine otherwise," he said, bemused at the media attention on his mother.
Hospital authorities said Sunali’s children and her mother, Jyotsna Bibi, would be allowed to stay with her until she is discharged after delivery.
Dr Palash Das, Medical Superintendent and Vice Principal of the hospital, said this case has international ramifications and is being monitored by the Supreme Court.
“We will take utmost care of the patient as long as she is with us,” Das said.
Earlier on Saturday, state health department officials escorted Sunali from Malda, where she had stayed overnight, to Rampurhat with a brief stop at Paikar, her native village. She was joined there by her parents and daughter.
Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam, who steered the legal battle for Sunali and the five other deportees, said her return was "a victory of the oppressed against the might of the central government".
"They not only pushed an Indian citizen illegally to Bangladesh to fulfil a communal agenda, the Centre went to great lengths to try and stop her from returning. But, this is only half the battle won. The next challenge is to bring back the four others, who still remain stuck on the other side of the border," he said, after handing over Sunali to the hospital authorities.
TMC MLA from Murarai, Dr Mosarraf Hossain, told PTI that he would personally bear Sunali’s medical expenses during her stay at the Rampurhat hospital.