SC questions lawyer claiming illegal migrants taken by train to cross into Bangladesh

The Supreme Court Tuesday wondered as to how activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan has alleged that illegal migrants from detention centres in Assam were transported by train to India-Bangladesh border for pushing them across the border. Bhushan, who made such statement by citing a report of the Peoples' Union of Civil Liberty (PUCL), said hundreds of people from detention centres are taken to borders by keeping them in train bogey and forced to run across the border.

No sooner he made the submission, a bench headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi asked: "which report says that people are taken to Indo-Bangla border by train and made to run acorss the border". "As far as we know no part of the Indo-Bangladesh border could be reached or is approachable through the train," the CJI said.

Bhushan quickly added that after the train, they are taken by road till the border. He said the migrants are forced by Border Security Force to run across the border with a threat that they will be shot otherwise.

The migrants are also told that they have to follow the instructions otherwise the Bangladesh Rangers would shoot them. He said that the government here was unable to get into agreement with the foreign government to take illegal migrants back.