After spending 87 days in detention and custody on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national, 70-year-old Jalil Akhtar is finally free.

The question now is: who compensates him for those 87 days?

An Islampur court granted Akhtar bail on Monday, 14 September after the prosecution failed to produce conclusive evidence establishing that he was a Bangladeshi national. The court noted that police verification had found his electoral photo identity card details on the Election Commission's ERONET portal and in the 2026 electoral roll. His Aadhaar and ration-card records were also found to be valid. His lawyers produced evidence that his name had appeared on electoral rolls as far back as 1995, including the 2002 and 2026 rolls.

Yet Akhtar had already — illegally —spent nearly three months behind bars.

The state opposed his bail, arguing that his release could potentially pose a threat to national security. The court nevertheless granted bail on a Rs 10,000 bond, taking into account his age, absence of criminal antecedents and the documentary and electoral records available on the case file.

The extraordinary sequence of events surrounding Akhtar's detention had first been reported in detail by the Bangla webzine Guruchandali. According to that account, Akhtar, a daily-wage worker from........

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