SILCHAR: A woman, who was declared as a Bangladeshi national by the Assam Police, was adjudicated an Indian citizen by the Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) No. 4 in Silchar on Friday, reports BB Goswami.
On March 29, 2013, the Bihara police watch post in Cachar district submitted an investigation report against Rita Rani Das, 42, a resident of Hatimara village in Katigara block of Cachar, to the SP (border branch) and accused her of being a Bangladeshi national. The report stated that the permanent address of Das is Hailerpar in Sylhet division of Bangladesh.
According to the report, Das allegedly entered India illegally, along with her daughter Topa and husband Pradeep, in search of a job after March 25, 1971. Accordingly, police (border branch) filed a case against her and she was served notices by the Foreigners’ Tribunal.
But Das failed to appear in the court because of the Covid-19 pandemic and also as she is suffering from respiratory ailments; as a result, she was unilaterally declared a foreigner, her lawyer Panchmi Nath said.
After learning about this, Das approached the FT and applied for reconsideration.
Rita’s lawyer, Nath, requested the FT to reopen the case by withdrawing the unilateral judgment it gave in September, 2021. Ranjan Roy, a member of the tribunal, on Friday scrutinized all the documents on record and declared Das an Indian. According to the state’s home department, Assam has 100 FTs.