Illegal infiltration into India not terror act: Supreme Court; gives bail to Bangladeshi who helped others to cross over

NEW DELHI: As BJP vows to drive out all illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from West Bengal after it forms govt, Supreme Court on Friday said mere illegal infiltration into India by Bangladeshi nationals is not a terrorist act.

The remark came from a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi in response to additional solicitor general SD Sanjay's opposition to the bail plea of Amol Chandra Das alias Sujib, who was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Bengaluru in Nov 2023 for staying in the city for 10 years with a forged passport and facilitating illegal immigration of Bangladeshis into India.

Sanjay said though other accused in the case have been granted bail, the present petitioner is part of a syndicate involved in trans-nation trafficking of Bangladeshis to India using forged documents and was not entitled to bail.

Justice Bagchi said, "Illegal immigration is not a terrorist act. Just because they have travelled across border without valid documents or no documents, it does not become a terrorist act without any other overt action that would qualify as terror acts."

CJI Kant said, "India shares a porous border with Bangladesh. There are a large number of Bangladeshis staying in India despite immigrating illegally." The bench granted bail to Das, but asked him to report to the Bengaluru NIA officer once a week. It asked the counter-terrorism agency to verify the place of stay of the accused.

Karnataka HC, while declining bail, had said, "Appellant is a Bangladeshi and material on record clearly discloses with regard to the alleged creation of document of Aadhaar card on the same day at Karnataka as well as Assam, and on perusal of the same, it discloses insertion of photo and obtaining the Aadhaar card and passport is also obtained based on those documents and travelled five times to Bangladesh."

Accepting the prosecution's stand that if bail is granted to the accused, there is a chance of him fleeing from justice, the HC had rejected his bail plea.

BJP, which had a blistering election campaign against alleged facilitation of Bangladeshi nationals to enter Bengal, had said 'ghuispaithiyas' (infiltrators) were a threat to national economy and security. The party on Friday vowed to keep its poll promise.