Saturday 22 January 2011

HC directive ignored: 587 Bangladeshis in Indian jails after serving sentence

A total of 587 Bangladeshi citizens are languishing in Indian jails even after ending their jail terms. They are yet to be brought back to the country, ignoring the High Court order that directed the government to do so.
Informed sources say, around 2,5000 Bangladeshi citizens are detained in Indian jails on different charges. Of them, about 587 completed their jail terms, according to sources. Following a public interest litigation, a bench of the High Court Division on November 1 directed the government to take effective measures to bring back the 587 Bangladesh citizens from Indian jails and to inform the court within 30 days what steps it has taken to bring them back.

Advocate Shahidul Islam, who filed the PIL, said after the directive, about 80 days have passed, but the government is yet to bring back anyone of them or to submit any report on it to the court.

The HC bench comprising Justice Md Imman Ali and Justice Obaidul Hasan had passed the directive. The bench had also directed the government (Bangladesh High Commission in West Bengal) to inform it the total number of the Bangladeshis, detained in Indian jails specially in West Bengal, their names, detailed addresses and the measures taken to provide them legal assistance, within 60 days.

Another bench of the HC in March last year issued a rule upon the government to explain within two weeks why it should not be directed to bring back 156 Bangladeshi citizens detained in Bohrampur Central Jail in West Bengal. No reply of this rule was also not given till now, said the lawyer.

No comments:

Post a Comment