Guwahati: After spending two years in a detention centre following a foreigner declaration, a 59-year-old woman from Assam’s Cachar district has officially received Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Dipali Das, a resident of Hawaithang in the Dholai assembly area of Cachar, was declared an illegal migrant by a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) in February 2019.
She was taken into police custody and sent to the Silchar detention centre on May 10, 2019, following the tribunal’s declaration of her status, her lawyer Dharmananda Deb said.
She remained in custody for almost two years before being released on bail on May 17, 2021, following a Supreme Court directive.
Deb said that Dipali originally hailed from Dippur village under Dhirai police station in Sylhet district, Bangladesh. She married Abhimanyu Das of Parai village, Habiganj district, in 1987.
The couple entered India in 1988 and settled in Cachar district, where they have lived ever since.
Dipali’s citizenship status came under scrutiny in 2013, when a police investigation began. Deb explained that police officer Ajmal Hussain Laskar prepared a chargesheet on July 2, 2013, stating that Dipali was a resident of Baniachong in Bangladesh and had entered India illegally after March 1971.
Under Assam law, individuals entering the country after March 25, 1971, without legal permission are classified as illegal migrants.
Deb noted that this 2013 chargesheet later played a key role in Dipali’s citizenship application under the CAA.
“To apply under the CAA, applicants must provide proof of migration from Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan,” Deb said. “Many fail to present such documents, but in Dipali’s case, the police chargesheet clearly confirmed her origin, which was accepted as valid evidence.”
The Foreigners’ Tribunal, which declared her an illegal migrant on February 5, 2019, stated that she had no legal rights in India, including voting privileges.
Deb, a former FT member himself, said that these tribunals provide opinions rather than formal judicial rulings. “Tribunal orders generally follow standard language, but in Dipali’s case, the member used unusually strong expressions,” he added.
After being released on bail in 2021, Dipali sought citizenship under the CAA. Although the Act was enacted in 2019, the rules to implement it were only notified in 2024, after which her application process could formally begin.
Social activist Kamal Chakraborty said Dipali’s first hearing took place on February 24 last year at the Superintendent of Post Offices office in Silchar, which processes such applications. Two additional hearings followed, and all documents were then submitted online to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
MHA-appointed intelligence officials visited Dipali’s home in Hawaithang on May 12 to carry out field verification. Following the completion of the verification, the report was sent to the government.
“Dipali attended a final session at the Superintendent of Post Offices office on May 25, and today (March 6), she received her citizenship certificate,” Chakraborty told HT.
Dipali is reportedly the first person in Assam, previously declared a foreigner and detained, to receive Indian citizenship under the CAA after being released on bail.
For Dipali and her family, the certificate marks the conclusion of a long legal struggle.
“Today, Dipali Das and her children are finally free from a burden that weighed on them for years,” Chakraborty said. All of Dipali Das’s children, Aditya, Arpita, Nivedita, and Joyshree, can now use her citizenship certificate to support their own claims if needed.