Sources said that after security clearance, immigration, and background checks, the deportees were given food. The illegal immigrants who hailed from Punjab were then taken to their homes by Punjab Police at around 4:30 am on Sunday.

The Haryana government also made transportation arrangements for the deportees from the state by sending police buses. As a few families had come to the airport to receive their children, they were not handed over to their kin and were told to go back.

"While those from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Goa were sent early this morning on flights from Amritsar, coordinated by the Union government," said an officer.

Daljit Singh of Kurala Kalan village in Hoshiarpur, who was among the deportees, claimed that they were handcuffed with their legs chained during the journey. "Our legs were chained and hands were also cuffed," he said.

Singh said he was taken through the 'dunki route'.

Saurabh of Chandiwala village in Ferozepur said, "We were handcuffed and chained, put in the plane and sent back. They treated us very badly and humiliated us."

Two cousin brothers from Gurdaspur district, who were deported back, said that they were threatened by the US army personnel while being deported and tortured.

"We crossed the US border on January 27, and the authorities put us in the camp for 18 days and never listened to us. Then we were put on the plane, handcuffed, and sent back, never allowed even to speak," said one of them.

The C-17 aircraft that landed around 11:35 pm on Saturday was the second batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigrants.

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