KOZHIKODE: Caught between the laws and regulations of two nations and due to failure of the Kozhikode district administration, a pregnant Bangladeshi girl in her teens is struggling at Howrah, to reach out to her kith and kin in Bangladesh.
The girl awaiting delivery was arrested in May at Thamarassery for violation of Foreigners’ Act and imprisoned as her age was stated as 20 years.
Later after the intervention of Punarjani, a forum of women advocates, it was revealed that the girl was only sixteen years old. The NGO had also sourced attested birth certificate of the girl from Bangladesh.
Acted with undue haste after an order of the Juvenile Court, the girl, escorted by police and nurses, was sent to Kolkata on last Sunday.
But due to lack of necessary procedural clearance from Intelligence Bureau (IB), a prolonged procedure which should have been started at Kozhikode earlier, the team failed to hand over the girl to Border Security Force (BSF) for deportation.
Adv Sapna Parameshwarath of Punarjani told Deccan Chronicle that the district administration was quite unprepared in the transit. “I don’t know why both police and district collector was shown such urgency even before getting necessary clearance”, she added.
The six member team, including women police cops and two nurses, started the return journey on Wednesday leaving the girl under the care of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Howrah.
Despite recurring warning, District Collector CA Latha acted on the advice of police who wanted to torpedo the demand gathering momentum to investigate the involvement of a sex trade cartel that engaged in trafficking teenage girls, it was alleged.
