Ranchi: Jharkhand high court on Monday issued notice to the Union govt, asking why a Bangladeshi national has not been deported despite being lodged at the Foreigners’ Holding Centre in Hazaribag since 2020.A division bench headed by Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad was hearing a petition filed by social worker Apurva Vivek, who sought the woman’s release and raised allegations of sexual assault at the holding centre.The woman was arrested in 2018 in a child kidnapping case in Jamtara and sentenced to two years of imprisonment by a magisterial court. After completing her sentence in 2020, she was identified as a Bangladeshi citizen without valid documents and shifted to the holding centre.The bench questioned the delay, observing that she should have been deported after serving her sentence. Advocate general Rohitashya Roy told the court that state govt had sent several communications to the ministry of external affairs, but no action had followed.The court directed the Union govt to file a detailed reply and posted the matter for hearing on Oct 15.Hazaribag District Legal Services Authority, in a sealed report submitted to the court, confirmed the sexual assault allegations. Roy said three police constables had been identified, suspended and named in an FIR.
