UNB, Benapole :
At least eight Bangladeshi women and a child have returned home from India after serving one and a half years’ jail term for illegal stay in that country after intrusion.
The Indian authorities handed over them to the Bangladesh authorities at Benapole check post on Monday afternoon.
The returnees are Jharna Begum, 35, Rupa Begum, 35, Baby Khan, 25, Shubha Sheikh, 30, Saleha Sheikh, 35, Asha Premanan, 28, and her daughter Priti Biswas, Arifa Yasmin and Rani Sardar, 25.
They hail from Narail, Gopalganj, Jessore, Jhenidah, Khulna and Satkhira districts.
Nayek Subedar M Abdullah, commander of Benapole check post of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), said in September, 2011, a team of Indian police had arrested them from different houses in Alipur of Kolkata where they were serving as domestic helps.
Afterwards, they were sent to Alipur Woman Central Jail where they were awarded one and a half years’ jail term.
Upon completion of the jail term, they were later kept in a shelter centre.
The decision of their release came following a joint intervention of the home ministries of India and Bangladesh.
Later, they were sent back to Bangladesh by a special representative of the Indian government.
