New Delhi: When the four-wheeler stepped on the Farakka Bridge in West Bengal’s Malda, Sweety Bibi, while on call, asked her driver how long would it take for her to be home. Over the past year, she had posed that question many times to family members, politically-connected neighbours and her companions, Sunali Bibi and Danish Sheikh.
“One year and fourteen days since I was first picked up by Delhi Police. Today I am finally going home,” she told The Print over the phone.
Sweety Bibi, her two sons, Sunali Bibi, her son and husband Danish Sheikh were six people who the Delhi Police had arrested and deported illegally to Bangladesh in June 2025 for being Bangladeshi nationals. While Sunali Bibi and her minor son were repatriated on 3 December, 2025 on “humanitarian grounds”, the four others continued to be held back in Bangladesh’s Chapainawabganj.
On May 22, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi that the Centre is willing to bring the family back and examine their citizenship status post that. The apex court was hearing the Centre’s petition challenging Calcutta High Court’s directions to bring them back.
Earlier, the Calcutta High Court on 26 September, 2025, had directed that the six members of the two families be brought back to India within four weeks. On 3 October, the senior judicial magistrate of the District Court in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh, held that they were Indian citizens based on their Aadhaar cards and residential addresses in West Bengal, ordering their “pushback” to India.
The six were arrested by Delhi Police, after Delhi L-G VK Saxena ordered a drive to identify “illegal” Bangladeshi nationals living in the Capital.
“I used to clench Faruq dada’s phone every time a court date would come. Months went by without any relief. Each day making me a little more anxious than the day before,” Sweety Bibi said. She added that after Sunali Bibi, her friend and neighbour, was repatriated, she started to feel that there might be no tomorrow for her family. “I was afraid that people would forget us and that this would become our life,” said Bibi.
Before living in a rented house in Chapainawabganj, the two families from West Bengal’s Birbhum district were arrested by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) for illegally entering the country. “We were kept behind bars for 101 days. We were released on the grounds of either returning to India or remaining within Naogola village in Chapainawabganj” said Bibi.
On most days, Bibi and her sons received vegetables and fish from their neighbours. “We could not get any formal jobs so my sons and I would do chores for the neighbours in exchange for food items, sometimes they gave us things for free,” said Bibi.
Chiming in, Sunali Bibi’s husband Danish Sheikh said that the past year was nothing less than traumatic. “My child was taking birth in Paikar, Birbhum, but I was here in Bangladesh. It has been six months and I have not been able to see him,” said Sheikh. He added that despite Sunali being back home, the loss of livelihood of both the husband and wife has impacted the family. “Our families are engaged in bidi-rolling which earns a small wage every day, and having been out of jobs for a year, Sunali has been struggling to make ends meet for the child.”
For Sheikh, the days in Bangladesh now seem like a blur. “Some days we would eat fruits from trees growing around, sometimes we would have a fish that we caught, but the days had no meaning,” said Sheikh. “Endless wait to be back home and see the faces of family members,” he added.
After more than a year of being in Bangladesh, the four Indian nationals were repatriated Wednesday. They entered the state through Mahadipur border crossing after receiving a one-day white passport from the authorities. After a medical check up, the BSF released them to their relatives later Wednesday.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)