New Delhi:
There is good news for the family of five-year-old Ariful Sheikh. The Indian boy from West Bengal's Murshidabad district, who has been languishing in a jail in Bangladesh for a whole year, will now walk free and return home on April 29.
NDTV first reported Ariful's story. He was picked up along with his grandparents when they crossed the border last April to meet some relatives in Bangladesh, as the family didn't have any travel documents. When the case came up in court at Kushtia, they were asked to pay a fine of 500 Takas (or Rs 320) or face two months in jail. They didn't have the money, so they were sent to prison. Because Ariful had nowhere to go, he was jailed too with the grandmother Mafroza Begum.
After human rights activists and the government of India condemned their wrongful detention and demanded their release, the Bangladesh government issued a release order for this family on April 15 but a communication gap between India's Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Border Guards meant the boy stayed in Kushtia jail in Bangladesh.