Jharkhand HC orders quick deportation of three Bangladeshis in India

The Jharkhand High Court has ordered the quick deportation of three Bangladeshis staying in India without valid documents. The court said authorities must act faster and file a compliance report by November 25.Image used for representational purposes onlyRanchi,Oct 13, 2026 22:40 ISTThe Jharkhand High Court has directed the Union government and the state governments concerned to ensure the quick deportation of three Bangladeshis, expressing concern over the presence of foreign nationals in India without proper documents. The order was passed by Justice Sanjay Prasad while hearing an appeal by Md Najmul Hawaldar, who had challenged his conviction under the Foreigners Act and the two-year jail term imposed on him on June 19, 2024.The court asked the governments of Jharkhand and West Bengal, along with the Ministry of External Affairs, to take steps for the immediate deportation of Hawaldar and the other foreign nationals and submit a compliance report by November 25. The high court had reserved its order on June 17 and pronounced it on September 29. The order was made available on Tuesday.According to the case details, Hawaldar had confessed that he entered India illegally by crossing the Sylhet border in January 2023 after paying Rs 20,000 to a person named Mohammed Sagar. He later worked as a scrap collector in Delhi before coming to Rajmahal in Jharkhand's Sahebganj district, where police picked him up on February 24, 2023.The court noted that several communications had taken place between the Jharkhand government, the West Bengal government and the Ministry of External Affairs over Hawaldar's deportation. He was later taken to the foreigners' detention centre in Hazaribagh, where he met two Bangladeshi women who were also staying in India illegally. The three allegedly tried to escape from the centre and were apprehended by the police on June 9, 2025. The high court said the government should be more proactive in dealing with the deportation of foreigners without documents. It also observed that there had been deliberate suppression of facts by the High Commission of Bangladesh, which, when contacted, had denied that Hawaldar was a resident of Bangladesh. The court observed that "people like Hawaldar are taking food and shelter in this country at the cost of taxpayers' money and poor people of the country. If they are allowed to remain in jail till the conclusion of trial, they will be a burden not only on the state but also on society and the entire country."In its order, the high court underlined the need for faster action on deportation, while directing the authorities concerned to complete the process in the case of Hawaldar and the two Bangladeshi women and report compliance by November 25. - Ends