Four persons from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who were forced into Bangladesh in June 2025 were brought back to India on Wednesday, a resident of their village confirmed to Scroll.Sunali Khatun, her husband and their son, as well as another woman, Sweety Bibi and her two sons, had been taken into custody in Delhi and sent to Bangladesh. The six persons maintain that they hail from Birbhum district.In December, Khatun, who was pregnant at the time, and her son Sabir were brought back to India on humanitarian grounds.On Wednesday, Khatun’s husband, Danish Sheikh, Sweety Bibi and her two sons entered West Bengal, their neighbour Soyef Ali, a resident of Paikar village in Birbhum, told Scroll.They entered the state through the Mahadipur border crossing in Malda district.On May 22, the Union government told the Supreme Court that it would bring back the persons who had been forced into the neighbouring country to verify their citizenship.The Centre’s statement came while the Supreme Court was hearing its challenge to a Calcutta High Court order that had set aside the deportation order against all six of them.It had directed that they be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks. The High Court had passed the order on a petition filed by Khatun’s father, Bhodu Sekh.Two days before the four-week period ended, the Union government in October challenged the order before the Supreme Court. The government and the Delhi Police questioned whether the High Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case.On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam said that “it was only because of the judiciary’s intervention that the Union government was ultimately compelled to bring back these poor Indian citizens”In a social media post, he said: “We have no objection to the deportation of those who are genuinely illegal infiltrators.”“Our fundamental question remains: why should poor and genuine Indian citizens be subjected to such harassment and injustice in the name of deportation?” asked Islam. The long-awaited dream of poor illegal deportees of Birbhum has finally come true. After a legal battle that lasted for more than a year, today marked the return of Sweety Biwi, her two minor sons, and Sunali Khatun's husband to their mother land after they were allegedly… pic.twitter.com/sK5sWpZp6K— Samirul Islam (@SamirulAITC) July 8, 2026