Guwahati

A woman who had spent nearly two years in a detention centre after being declared a foreigner has now been granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam’s Cachar district, her lawyer said.

The woman, Depali Das (59), a resident of the Hawaithang area under the Dholai assembly constituency, had been declared an illegal migrant by a Foreigners' Tribunal in February 2019.

According to her lawyer Dharmananda Deb, Das is the first person in Assam who had earlier been declared a foreigner, detained and later released on bail to receive Indian citizenship under the CAA.

Following the tribunal’s order, police detained her and sent her to a detention centre in Silchar on May 10, 2019. She remained there for nearly two years before being released on bail on May 17, 2021 after an order by the Supreme Court of India.

Das was originally from Dippur village under Dhirai police station in Sylhet district of Bangladesh. She married Abhimanyu Das of Parai village under Baniachong police station in Habiganj district in 1987.

A year later, in 1988, the couple entered India and settled in Cachar district, where they have been living since then.

Her citizenship status first came under scrutiny in 2013 when police began an inquiry. A chargesheet filed on July 2 that year stated that she was a resident of Baniachong in Bangladesh and had entered India illegally after March 1971.

According to Deb, this chargesheet later became crucial evidence when she applied for citizenship under the CAA because applicants must provide documentary proof showing migration from Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan.

“In most cases, applicants fail to produce such documents, but in Depali’s case the chargesheet submitted by the police in 2013 clearly mentioned that she was from Bangladesh. Authorities accepted this as valid proof,” he said.

After being released on bail in 2021, Das sought legal help to apply for citizenship once the rules of the Act were notified in 2024.

Her first hearing took place on February 24 last year at the office of the Superintendent of Post Offices in Silchar, which processes such applications. Two more hearings followed before the documents were submitted online to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Social activist Kamal Chakraborty said Das was called for a final appearance on May 25 last year after field verification by officials. On March 6, she received her Indian citizenship certificate.

Her children — one son and three daughters — can now rely on their mother’s citizenship certificate if their nationality is questioned in the future, as all of them were born in India, he added.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, sparked widespread protests across the country, particularly in Assam. The law allows Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Parsi migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India between March 25, 1971 and December 31, 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship.

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Before Das, four Bangladeshi nationals living in Assam had been granted Indian citizenship under the CAA.