As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina are taking the bilateral ties to a new level, thousands of Bangladeshis continue to languish in West Bengal prisons even after they have completed their term. Records of the West Bengal Correctional Homes, accessed by The Hindu , show that 932 prisoners who have completed their sentences are still behind bars. Furthermore, 167 Bangladeshi children are still in the State’s correctional homes.
“Of 965 Jan Khalash inmates [prisoners who have completed their sentences] in the correctional homes of the State, 932 are Bangladeshi nationals, 833 men and 99 women,” Adhir Sharma, Additional Director-General & Inspector-General of the West Bengal Correctional Services, told The Hindu .
The data show that of the 3,110 Bangladesh prisoners in the State, 29.9 per cent have completed their terms, but are yet to be freed.
Though the figures vary from month to month, the number of Bangladeshis ranges from 12 per cent to 15 per cent of the total number of correctional home inmates, which now stands at 24,000. The correctional homes have the capacity of housing 20,916 inmates.
Lengthy processA senior official of the West Bengal Home Department said the deportation of Jan Khalash prisoners was a lengthy and complicated process. “It involves the Ministry of External Affairs, the Government of Bangladesh, the West Bengal Correctional Home Services, the Border Security Force and Border Guard Bangladesh. The process might take anything between three months and one year,” he said.
If the Bangladesh government denied that the inmate was its national, the Indian government could not do anything but to keep him in prison, he pointed out.
The two countries signed the Transfer of Sentenced Person Agreement in 2010. Under it, the prisoners can serve their sentences in their own country.
