Love brought them together, law separated

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

Agartala, Feb 19: Love brought them together but the law separated and sent the duo to the jails of two countries. Shanu Dasgupta (22) who used to stay in his sister’s house at Subroom, about 180 km from here in South Tripura district bordering Bangladesh, fell in love with the 18-year-old Sunumala Tripura. They got married about two year ago and since then Shanu started to live with his in-laws at nearby Tribal para.

All was going well till Shanu decided to visit his own house which is in the other side of the border in Bangladesh, along with his wife Sunumala. Since none of them had passport they crossed over the border through a jungle path but unfortutely before reaching to Shanu’s ancestral home both got bbed by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) jawans on May 5, 2015. The BGB handed them over to Bangladesh police.

The police produced both of them before a judicial magistrate who instantly released Shanu as he is a citizen of Bangladesh and convicted Sunumala for 10-months imprisonment for violating the passport act and was sent to Fenny jail in the Khagrachari District in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Finding no way to rescue his wife, Shanu returned to Subroom to inform his in-laws about the incident.

They refused to accept his version and filed a case against him. They expressed suspicion that the marriage was nothing but a ploy and alleged that Shanu sold their daughter in some brothel in Bangladesh. The Subroom police acted accordingly and the young lover is now spending his days in Subroom jail as an under trial prisoner.

The whole story came to light only when the BGB brought a young girl to the Belonia Check post to push her back to India. It was a great shock for the security officials of both the sides when Sunumala rrated her ordeals in detail and wanted to know the whereabouts of her husband.

They immediately handed her over to the Belonia Women Police station. Sunumala was sent to her parent’s house at Tribal para in Subroom but it is not yet clear when the lovers will meet again or ever.

Even if Sunumala’s parents withdraw the kidpping case Shanu’s release will not be easy as then he will be booked for entering into India without a valid passport, said an advocate.