Silchar: The eight Trinamul Congress delegates who were detained at Silchar airport in Assam on Thursday returned on Friday, alleging that they were "pushed back like infiltrators".

The TMC delegation, comprising Bengal minister Firhad Hakim, MPs Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Mamata Bala Thakur, Nadimul Haque and Arpita Ghosh and MLA Mahua Mitra had gone to Assam to assess the situation after the recent publication of the complete draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), which excluded over 40 lakh people.

The delegates, who were to attend a citizens' convention at Silchar, were prohibited from exiting the airport and taken into "preventive detention" under Section 151 of the CrPC in view of a possible disruption of law and order.

While Hakim, Roy, Dastidar, Nag, Haque and Mitra returned to Calcutta by a flight on Friday morning, Thakur and Ghosh took a flight to Delhi in the afternoon. After arriving in Calcutta, Roy, a Rajya Sabha MP, said, "The way infiltrators are treated - they are pushed back - we were treated the same way. We were pushed back. We were manhandled, even women MPs were not spared."

Cachar deputy commissioner S. Lakshmanan told The Telegraph the delegates were treated properly and given a good hospitality. "Food and other necessary items were arranged and it was ensured that they were served in the best manner possible and had a comfortable stay at the airport," he said.

A source at the airport said the delegates were not "happy" with the food provided to them and arranged roti and sabji at night and in the morning from an eatery outside the airport. Lakshmanan said he was "not aware" of this. Sources in Calcutta said while four of them bought their own tickets out of Silchar, four others had their tickets arranged for by the Cachar administration. A senior MP said the district administration would be reimbursed for the four tickets on Saturday. Cachar superintendent of police Rakesh Roushan said everything was peaceful at the airport at night and the delegates were calm.

Silchar MP Sushmita Dev, who went to Delhi with Thakur and Ghosh, wrote to Assam chief secretary T.Y. Das, expressing her fury over the incident. Dev said the administration should have allowed the delegates to meet the citizens in Silchar.

In Delhi, the TMC protested in the Lok Sabha against detention of their MPs at Silchar airport and alleged "undeclared emergency" in the country. Home minister Rajnath Singh, however, justified the detention saying it was to maintain law and order and accused the MPs of creating an "unruly situation".