Nur Hossain (right) was handed over to Bangladesh on Thursday
It was a swap after all. In exchange for Anup Chetia, founder member of the banned separatist group, ULFA, India on Thursday deported a man wanted in Bangladesh for the murder of seven people in April 2014. He had been arrested in Kolkata last June for illegal entry.
Nur Hossain was released from the Dum Dum central jail in Kolkata at around 6pm. Five hours later, at the Petrapole border check post about 70 km away, the Border Guard, Bangladesh, took him into custody.
The Centre told West Bengal government to drop charges against Hossain on Monday, according to sources, two days before Chetia was flown to Delhi from Dhaka.
The charges were dropped at a district court which ordered his deportation by Sunday, November 15.
Hossain is one of the 34 people charged with the murder of seven people including politicians and senior lawyers. The victims were kidnapped on April 27 and a few days later, their bodies were found floating in a river.
The motive for the murders is still not clear but the alleged involvement of some officers of Bangladesh's elite police force, the Rapid Action Battalion, had shocked the country.
Meanwhile, CBI has taken Chetia into a six-day transit remand and he will be produced in a Guwahati court soon.
The government may try and get Chetia to join the Assam peace talks, due to be held later this month. The former chairman of ULFA, Arabinda Rajkhowa, who surrendered in 2009, is willing. But the commander of the outfit, Paresh Baruah, has refused to talk. He still wants sovereignty for Assam. Chetia and Baruah are cousins and fellow founders of the ULFA. If Chetia agrees to peace talks, Paresh Baruah could be persuaded to join in.