Bangladeshi student asked to leave India: some teachers, students offer legal help

A section of teachers and students of Visva Bharati University has offered legal assistance to the Bangladeshi student who was asked to leave India for engaging in "anti-government activities".

Afsara Anika Meem, the 20-year-old first-year student of designing course at the central university, was served a 'Leave India Notice' by Kolkata-based Foreigners' Regional Registration Office.

A Calcutta High Court lawyer said on Friday that that Meem's friends have approached him for taking up her case.

"I had a conversation with Meem on Thursday after some of her friends called me up and handed over the phone to her. But nothing has been finalised yet. It is her decision," the lawyer said requesting anonymity.

A leader of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), frontal wing of CPI(M), said two leading lawyers of the high court have agreed to take up the case of the student, who has been subjected to "gross injustice".

It is understood that one of the leading lawyers is a former Mayor of Kolkata and a prominent CPI(M) leader.

Meem, who hails from Bangladesh's Kushtia district, enrolled in the Bachelor of Design course at the university in 2018. She received the FRRO notice dated February 14 on Wednesday, one of her friends said.

The notice had asked her to leave India within 15 days from the date of its receipt but did not specify the nature of the "anti-India activities".

Meem allegedly shared some posts on her Facebook account related to protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by Indian parliament in December last, inside the campus of Visva Bharati. She was then trolled on the social media, an SFI member said.

"... She is found to have engaged in anti-government activities. And such activity being a breach of her visa, has thus, committed visa violation.... The foreigner shall not remain in India, shall depart from India within 15 days of receipt of this order," the FRRO notice said.

The SFI claimed that Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students' wing of the RSS, had lodged a complaint against Meem to Visva Bharati authorities. The ABVP, however, has dismissed the charge.

"We have always maintained that foreign nationals studying in India should not interfere into the affairs of this country. But, we have never singled out Meem," Shyamasree Karmakar of ABVP said.