It was finally homecoming for 26-year-old Birbhum resident Sunali Khatun and her son Sabir who were repatriated to India through the Malda border in north Bengal on Friday evening after spending 103 days in a Bangladeshi prison as alleged "infiltrators".

Their return followed a Supreme Court direction to the Centre, officials said.

There was no clarity on when the four other deportees whose repatriation has also been ordered by the Supreme Court would be brought back.

An official said Sunali, who is in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was handed over to an officer of the rank of deputy high commissioner around 7 pm.

She and her son were first taken to the BSF camp at Mehedipur for formalities and then moved to Malda Medical College and Hospital for medical tests.

She would be transported to her residence at Dorjee Para in Paikar village in Murarai in Birbhum district on Saturday if doctors declared her fit to travel.

Sunali was picked up by Katju Nagar police in Delhi on 18 June from the Bengali Basti in Sector 26, Rohini where she had lived for more than two decades and worked as a ragpicker and waste collector.

She was detained on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national. She, her husband Danesh and her son were subsequently pushed to Bangladesh following orders from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.

Another family from the same Birbhum village comprising Sweety Bibi and her sons Qurban Sheikh who is 16 and Imam Dewan who is 6 were also deported.

All six detainees were kept at the Chapai Nawabgunj correctional facility in Bangladesh from 20 August as alleged "infiltrators" until a judicial magistrate granted bail on 1 December on a bond of Tk 5,000 each.

The Union government had challenged a Calcutta High Court division bench order passed on 26 September which had directed the Centre to facilitate the return of Sunali and five other migrant workers from Bengal within four weeks.

The West Bengal government filed a contempt petition before the Supreme Court accusing the Centre of defying the directive.

During the hearings, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi criticised the Centre for deporting individuals without due process.

The bench pointed to evidence on record which included 1952 land deeds of the deported families, 2002 electoral rolls listing Sunali’s parents as voters of the Murarai assembly constituency, Aadhaar and PAN details and birth certificates of the children.

These documents contradicted police claims that Sunali had illegally entered India in 1998 when she was not yet born.

The court emphasised that the authorities can push back illegal immigrants but not before ascertaining their citizenship. "If someone says they were born in India, grew up here, they have rights. Their version must be heard," the bench observed.

On 3 December, the Centre informed the court it would bring back Sunali and her minor son on humanitarian grounds.

"Finally, after a long battle against the Bangla-Birodhi Zamindars, Sunali Khatun and her minor son have returned to India. This day will be remembered as a historic moment that exposes the torture and atrocities inflicted on poor Bengalis. Sunali, who was pregnant at the time, was forcibly deported in June this year. After enduring six months of unimaginable suffering, she and her child have at last returned to their homeland," Samirul Islam, TMC MP, wrote on X.

It must also be stated that despite the Supreme Court's order, the "anti-poor" central government failed to take any action over the past two days to ensure their immediate return, he claimed.

"As a result, our advocates were compelled to mention the matter once again before the Supreme Court today. Only then was the return finally made possible," Islam said, while thanking his party leadership for their support for the deported families.

Lipika Burman Ghosh, Sabhadhipati of Malda Zilla Parishad, who was present at the border at the time of Sunali's repatriation, questioned why four others still remained stuck in Bangladesh when the top court had also ordered their repatriation.

"I asked the deputy high commissioner who was present here to receive Sunali and her child why her husband and three others of Birbhum have not been brought back. He gave me no reply," she alleged.