Former school teacher 'deported to Bangladesh' returns home in Assam
Morigaon , A former school teacher, who was detained by Assam Police on the charges of being a foreigner and allegedly deported to Bangladesh, returned to his home in Morigaon district on Saturday, an officer said.
Khairul Islam and eight others were picked up from different parts of the district on May 24 but family members claimed they were not told about their whereabouts.
Islam's family had claimed that they saw him in a video purportedly showing him being taken to Bangladesh. They claimed he was "shot at" at the India-Bangladesh border in South Salmara Mankachar district.
Islam's family members claimed that the police brought him home on Saturday morning.
An officer of the Assam Border Police said that his medical check-up was conducted and he was found to be physically fit.
The officer, however, refused to divulge details on where he was detained.
The other eight persons who were picked up along with Islam have been shifted to a detention centre at Matia in Goalpara district, police said.
Their family members claimed that their appeals were pending before either the Supreme Court or the Gauhati High Court.
Islam's wife Rita Khanam had said on Friday that her husband is a former school teacher and a law-abiding citizen.
She claimed that policemen had come to their residence at night, and took him away, saying they have some questions to ask and he can return home after that but since then the family was not given any information about his whereabouts till the video surfaced.
Islam, along with his three siblings, was declared a foreigner by the Foreigner Tribunals in 2016, against which he had approached the Gauhati High Court. The High Court had upheld the FT decision, leading to Islam's detention in 2018.
He was set free in 2020 following a Supreme Court general order for releasing all detainees who have spent more than two years term.
Khanam claimed that her husband's appeal against the FT decision is pending before the Supreme Court.
Islam's mother Jahanara was a member of the village panchayat in the last term and all members of the family, including the former school teacher, had voted in the just concluded rural polls in the state, the family claimed.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had asserted that the detection of foreigners in the state will be expedited and action against Declared Foreign Nationals will be taken as per the law.
The chief minister had said that the course open to those who have been declared foreigners by the Tribunal is to appeal to the High Court.
If some say that they have appeals pending before the Supreme Court or High Court, then no action will be taken against them but those who have not appealed in the higher judiciary, will be pushed back, he said.
The chief minister pointed out that if a person who is once declared a foreign national by the Tribunal does not challenge it in the court then their ''right to stay in Assam is forfeited''.
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