Paikar village (Bengal): “The marks of BSF boots are still all over my body,” said Sweety Bibi, holding out her hands and pointing at her neck as she showed what she described as the scars of the assault.“We begged the BSF personnel with folded hands. We pleaded, ‘We do not know this place. We are Indian citizens. Why are you abandoning us in this deep forest at midnight?’ They replied, ‘This is the land of Bangladesh. We are leaving you here.’ When we asked again, they began kicking us with their boots. I endured all of this only to save my two sons.”After a prolonged legal battle, on July 8, Sweety Bibi, her two sons, and their neighbour Danesh Sheikh finally returned to India. But survival remains a daily struggle and the memories of what they endured is fresh.“We have no home, no livelihood, and often not enough food. How am I supposed to raise my three sons? I need a job,” she said.Sweety Bibi, Sunali Khantun, Sunali’s husband Danesh Sheikh, and their children are residents of Paikar village in Birbhum district, West Bengal. Acute poverty and the lack of work had driven them to Delhi, where they lived in a rented shanty in Rohini and survived through waste picking, scrap collection, and other informal work.Their case unfolded amid identity-verification drives targeting Bengali-speaking workers in several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.While their story is well known by now, Sweety’s allegation that the BSF kicked her and others like her with their boots is serious. The Wire has reached out to the BSF for their response. This report will be updated when we hear back.The pushbackSitting at her parents’ home in Paikar, Sweety Bibi described to The Wire the ordeal that pushed her and her family to the brink of death.“Around eight years ago, I moved to Delhi with my husband, Azizul Dewan, my mother, Nazima Bibi, and our two minor sons in search of a livelihood,” Sweety said. “We collected discarded plastic and other scrap from the streets and sold it to local dealers. Five years ago, my husband went missing. He has never been found. Since then, I have lived alone with my sons, Qurban and Iman.”According to Sweety, Delhi Police raided their shanty on June 17, 2025 and detained her and her sons. Sunali Khatun, Danesh Sheikh, and their son Sabir were also taken into custody. Sweety said they were brought to “Rohini Sector 11 Police Station” and accused of being Bangladeshi nationals. There is no Rohini Sector 11 police station and Sweety is unable to recall the exact name of the police station she was taken to.“Even after we produced our Aadhaar cards and other documents, the police refused to release us. They said we would be freed only if we paid Rs 3 lakh. Where could we find that kind of money?” she said.Sweety also alleged that her mother was not allowed inside the police station and that the psychological abuse intensified when they said they could not pay.The Wire has reached out to Delhi police for its response on these allegations. This report will be updated if they respond.Records later placed before the courts showed that the Foreigners Regional Registration Office classified the detainees as illegal Bangladeshi migrants despite the Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards, and ration cards they had produced. Within days, they were flown from Delhi to Guwahati, taken to the international border in BSF vehicles, and allegedly forced across an unfenced stretch into Bangladesh.Sweety Bibi with her sons Kurban, Imam, and Imran, and mother Nazina Bibi. The Wire has blurred the children’s faces in accordance with Indian laws protecting the rights of minors. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.The operation appeared to bypass Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines requiring verification before deportation, issued on May 2, 2025. The guidelines required officials to seek verification from a suspected migrant’s claimed home state. West Bengal was reportedly not consulted. The Wire has posed these questions to Delhi Police as well.Sweety said the BSF left them in a deserted forest at night and warned them not to return. For days, they lived in no-man’s-land, surviving on grass, tender leaves, and stream water, sleeping in the open while searching for help.Villagers in Bangladesh eventually gave them food and clothes. Members of the Border Guard Bangladesh later tried to help them cross back into India in cover of darkness, but the BSF caught them again.“Sunali and I threw ourselves in front of our children to protect them, and we took the beatings,” Sweety said. “Even today, the memories leave us trembling,” said Sweety.Through this ordeal, Sunali Khatun had been pregnant. She gave birth earlier this year.After being pushed back into Bangladesh again, the group crossed a river and eventually reached Dhaka.Danesh found work as a daily-wage labourer, while the families slept at a railway station and begged on the streets. Bangladesh Police later arrested them for illegal entry. “I was sent to Chapai Jail and my elder son, Qurban, to a jail in Jashore,” Sweety said.It was only after the arrests unfolded that people across West Bengal came to know about the pushback. News of Sunali Khatun’s health spread nationwide and led to a clamour for her return.Legal accounts show that members of the group spent more than three months in custody. On December 1, 2025, a magistrate in Chapai Nawabganj granted bail to all six, considering Sunali’s pregnancy and the three minors. In an extraordinary move, a Bangladeshi citizen, Faruk Ali, reportedly furnished a bond of 5,000 taka. The families still had to remain in Bangladesh and report to the police when summoned.The court battleThe incident triggered widespread outrage, especially West Bengal. Protest demonstrations were held in different parts of the state, with people demanding that the families be brought back to their own country.Sunali’s father, Bhadu Sheikh, filed a habeas corpus petition before the Calcutta high court. They produced Paikar land records dating to 1952, family names from the 2002 Murarai electoral roll, and Aadhaar, PAN, voter identity, and ration cards.On September 26, 2025, the Calcutta high court said that the authorities had acted in unjustified “hot haste” and directed the Union government to bring all six people back within four weeks.The Union government challenged the ruling before the Supreme Court, questioning the Calcutta high court’s jurisdiction over actions taken by the Delhi Police and the FRRO. It also continued to dispute the families’ citizenship documents.During a hearing on November 24, 2025, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant asked the Union government to bring them back first, and examine their documents in India afterward. The bench questioned how the families could establish their citizenship while stranded in a foreign country.Considering Sunali’s advanced pregnancy, she and her eight-year-old son Sabir were brought back through Malda on December 5, 2025. A month later, on January 5, 2026, she gave birth to a boy at Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital.Sweety, her two sons, and Danesh remained in Bangladesh. On May 22, 2026, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that the Union government would facilitate their return so their citizenship claims could be examined in India. He said the decision was being taken on humanitarian grounds and should not be treated as a precedent in other deportation disputes.Sonali Khatun and Danesh Sheikh in Paikar. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.That qualification left the wider legal issue unresolved. The families were allowed to return, but there was no broader ruling barring similar pushbacks before a complete citizenship inquiry on Indian soil.Sweety, Qurban, Iman, and Danesh re-entered India through the Mahadipur land port in Malda on July 8, more than a year after their detention.HomeReturning to India has not ended their hardship. In Fakir Para of Paikar village, both families remain trapped in acute poverty, without steady work, secure housing, or adequate food.As The Wire has reported before from the ground, Sunali’s extended family of 14 people shares two small rooms in a dilapidated house. Access to welfare has also remained uncertain. The family was reportedly denied subsidised grain under the Public Distribution System because of a biometric mismatch, even though the same identity documents had supported their citizenship claim in court.They were also denied assistance from the State Migrant Welfare Board because they had not registered before leaving for Delhi. Appeals for government housing to replace their collapsing home were reportedly ignored. Apart from one-time assistance of Rs 2 lakh from a local Zilla Parishad official, the family received no lasting support.Sweety is staying at her parents’ home with her three sons and says the family often cannot afford two full meals a day. Her only wish is to educate her children, find a job, and secure a house under a government housing scheme. When contacted by The Wire, Paikar BDO Sunil Soren said, “I cannot comment on the matter.”For Sweety Bibi, Sunali Khatun, and Danesh Sheikh, that response shows that returning home is not the end of the story. After surviving months of displacement, separation, and legal battles, they now face another relentless struggle, an uncertain future marked by unemployment, poverty, and a daily fight to survive.