Amir Sheikh, the 20-year-old migrant worker who was wrongly deported to Bangladesh last month on suspicion that he was a Bangladeshi, has been brought back to India, his family members and a Congress MP claimed on Tuesday.
Sheikh, a resident of Jalalpur, a village under the jurisdiction of Kaliachak police station in Malda district, was working in Rajasthan. He was apprehended by police there and allegedly kept in judicial custody for three months. On July 22, he was forced to walk into Bangladesh.
After his deportation, a video went viral on social media, where the youth was seen wailing and narrating his ordeal of how he had landed in Bangladesh.
His family members and relatives had no idea till the video surfaced that Amir had been sent to Bangladesh. To prove that Amir is an Indian citizen, they even showed a land deed of the family, which dates back to 1971, bearing the then-British seal.
“We got two phone calls on Monday and were told that Amir had been brought back to India. We were told not to publicise it. Today, we got a call from our local MP who reconfirmed that our son is back. We are eagerly waiting for him to return home,” Ajmaul Sheikh, Amir’s uncle, said on Tuesday.
Isha Khan Choudhury, the Congress MP of Malda Dakshin, said that a senior BSF officer had confirmed that the youth had been brought back.
“A senior BSF officer called me up today and said that Amir had reached India from Bangladesh. He even asked for the contact number of the boy’s family, and I provided the details to him,” he said.
After the issue came to light, Isha had met the director general of the BSF and the Union home secretary and requested them to expedite Amir’s repatriation. Along with some other Congress MPs, he had also demonstrated in front of the Parliament with Amir’s photo, seeking his return.
Samirul Islam, a Trinamool Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, claimed today that they had put legal pressure on the Rajasthan government, the Centre and the BSF.
“A case has been filed in Calcutta High Court and the hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. That is why steps are being taken by the authorities concerned to hurriedly bring him back to save their faces,” Islam, who is also the chairman of the state’s migrant welfare board, wrote in a social media post.