Agartala, Sep 13 (IANS): After languishing for over four-and-a-half years in Bangladeshi jail, Assam youth Mukul Hazarika returned to India on Monday after a series of diplomatic and administrative efforts.

Hazarika, a resident of Hodapara village in western Assam's Darrang district, returned on Monday after he was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) and Belonia police by the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) through Tripura's Belonia check-post on the India-Bangladesh border.

A rickshaw puller by profession and father of three children, Hazarika (35) inadvertently went to Bangladesh in February 2017, where he was arrested by security forces. A local court then sent him to imprisonment in Feni jail.

Hazarika's father, Fuleshwar Hazarika, and Assam police personnel went to the Tripura border to receive the returnee on Tuesday.

"Bangladesh jail police tortured me in prison. They did not give me food regularly. After completing a three-year jail term, they did not allow me to come back to my home in Assam," Hazarika told the media at the border.

Hazarika's presence in Bangladesh first became known in 2019 after the officials of the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh informed the Assam government that he was lodged in Feni jail.

Senior bureaucrats and Darang District Superintendent of Police Sushanta Biswa Sarma played an active role in releasing and bringing back Hazarika to his home, Fuleshwar Hazarika told the media.