A decade in foreign jail

Badal Farazi

A youth from Bangladesh, who is serving a life term sentence in Delhi's Tihar Jail after being convicted in a murder case, will be taken back to his country on June 29 under a bilateral treaty on 'Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners'. The treaty was signed eight years ago.

Two police officials will come here from Bangladesh on June 27 and escort Badal Farazi back to Dhaka on a Jet Airways flight on June 29, Minister (Consular) Mosharaf Hossain in Bangladesh High Commission, New Delhi told The Daily Star yesterday.   

Badal, now about 28, hails from Bagerhat and has been in the high-security Tihar Jail for the last ten years.

“We are happy with the manner in which Bangladesh and India have cooperated for a humanitarian cause,” Hossain said.

Badal's life sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court in May 2016 and his appeal against it was rejected by the Indian Supreme Court in December the same year. Badal then appealed to Indian authorities seeking repatriation under the agreement on sentenced prisoners.  

Officials said Badal's repatriation could facilitate greater cooperation between the two countries for exchange of sentenced prisoners. But there are three main conditions for this: (1) that a person has more than six months left of his sentence to be served, (2) there is no appeal by the person pending in a court and (3) the conduct of the prisoner has to be exemplary showing signs of reformation, Hossain said.

He said Badal, who was a school student when he came to India in 2008, completed his studies and even obtained a degree during his stay in Tihar Jail.  

Badal will serve the rest of his sentence in a Bangladesh jail and he will not have the option to appeal his sentence after repatriation, he added.

Badal had entered India through the Benapole check-post at the India-Bangladesh border in July 2008 with a valid passport and visa, Hossain said. Badal's father passed away when he was in jail in India and has an ailing mother back home.

An NGO in India organised two separate street marches in Delhi in March this year for the repatriation of Badal and mobilised opinion on social media.

Prior to 2004, India did not have domestic legislation under which foreign prisoners could be transferred to the country of their origin to serve the remaining part of their sentence.

The transfer of such prisoners to their own native countries is aimed at facilitating their social rehabilitation by allowing them to be nearer their families.

The repatriation of Badal will come a fortnight before Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh's first visit to Bangladesh in July.

The Bangla daily Prothom Alo on May 17 last year reported that Indian Border Security Force arrested Badal while he was entering India on a tourist visa for similarity of his name with that of an accused in a murder case.

According to the report, the home ministry of Bangladesh sent a letter to Indian government for the repatriation of Badal, son of Abdul Khalek and Sarafali Begum.

Indian police were looking for one Badal Singh on charge of killing an old woman at Amar Colony in New Delhi on May 6, 2008. When Badal Farazi was entering India on July 13, he was arrested, the report said.

Badal passed secondary and higher secondary exams while being confined in jail. He graduated from Indira Gandhi National Open University on the jail premises and completed eight diploma courses. He can now speak English and Hindi fluently, according to the report.