Sunali Khatun was pushed to Bangladesh despite being Indian, says Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (December 3, 2025) said that Sunali Khatun, a pregnant woman who was deported to Bangladesh with her eight-year-old son, was pushed back into Bangladesh despite an Indian citizen by the Border Security Force (BSF). Ms. Banerjee also claimed that the Trinamool Congress fought to bring her back home.

“How are Indian citizens being labelled Bangladeshi? Was Sonali Khatun Bangladeshi? She was Indian. Despite her having Indian [documents] you pushed her to Bangladesh by the Border Security Force,” the Chief Minister said targeting the BJP-led Centre, during her rally at the Gazole college ground in Malda on Wednesday (December 3, 2025).

She claimed that while the Supreme Court gave an order for her to be brought back, it was her party that took Ms. Khatun’s case to court and fought for her return.

Hours before Ms. Banerjee’s speech, the Union Government agreed to bring Ms. Khatun and her minor son back from Bangladesh on “humanitarian grounds” after the Supreme Court’s intervention.

In July this year, a pregnant Ms. Khatun was found to have been among a group of six migrants from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who were picked up from Delhi and forcibly deported to Bangladesh. In a video message, one of the members of that group had appealed to the West Bengal Chief Minister to repatriate them. The group included three minors.

Earlier this year, several migrant workers from West Bengal were being detained in different parts of the country on suspicions of being Bangladeshi, and were being pushed to Bangladesh. During her speech on Wednesday (December 3, 2025), the Chief Minister spoke of the assault on Bengali-speaking migrant workers and raised questions on why people are being “tortured” for speaking Bengali in Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, or Maharashtra.

“After a long wait, justice has finally prevailed. The Central Government has agreed, on humanitarian grounds, to bring back pregnant Sunali Khatun and her minor son. She was illegally deported to Bangladesh merely for speaking Bengali, and her ordeal across the border stands as a stark example of why BJP is called Bangla-Birodhi (anti-Bengali) Zamindars,” Trinamool MP and Chairperson of the State’s Migrant Workers Welfare Board Samirul Islam alleged on X on Wednesday (December 3, 2025).

In his social media post, Mr. Islam noted the Supreme Court’s observation that Ms. Khatun’s biological father is an Indian citizen who has not been deported.

“The Court [said]… there is no basis to label Sunali a Bangladeshi. Under Indian law, since her father is Indian, Sunali is automatically an Indian citizen, and therefore her son is also an Indian citizen,” the Trinamool MP said.