Raiganj, Aug. 31: Little did police realise that the five Indians they were preparing to receive from their Bangladesh counterparts at Hili had returned home.

Left red in the face by the revelation, the police abandoned arrangements to receive the quintet for discussions with higher-ups.

The Bangladesh police had apprehended the five — two named Akhtar Hussain, Safirul Islam, Karim Bux and Azimuddin — from Islampur and Chopra in North Dinajpur in 2000 for entering Bangladesh without valid papers. They had apparently gone there looking for work.

All five had served their jail terms and were eligible to be “pushed back” into India.

The district administration had written to the special secretary, home, last September, to verify their nationality. It began making arrangements to receive them after being told by the home department on August 3 that the group would be sent back on August 31.

District intelligence branch officers, who went to the homes of the five men to inform about the comeback, found them home. They returned through the Cooch Behar border.