Guwahati, 13th October: Dulubi Bibi (50), who was previously declared an illegal migrant from Bangladesh by the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam’s Silchar in 2017 due to discrepancies in her name and voter lists, has now been granted Indian citizenship based on circumstantial evidence. She expressed her joy at finally proving her Indian citizenship and raised questions about the impact this ordeal has had on her life.
Dulubi Bibi, a resident of Cachar district’s Udharbond area, was initially declared a foreigner during a hearing of a 1998 case under the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act. After discrepancies were found in her name on various voter lists, she was arrested by the police and placed in a detention camp in Silchar in 2018.
During the legal proceedings, her name appeared in different variations on voter lists, and there were mismatches in her father’s and grandfather’s names. She struggled to establish a connection between her parents’ names.
After enduring two years in detention, she was released on bail in April 2020, following a Supreme Court directive. In May 2023, she challenged the 2017 Foreigners Tribunal order in the Guwahati High Court.
In an unexpected turn of events, the same member of the Foreigners Tribunal, BK Talukdar, who had previously declared her an illegal migrant in 2017, reversed his decision. In his order dated 7/10/2023, Talukdar stated that, after carefully reviewing the facts, materials, and deposition records from 1965, 1985, and 1997, along with new documents from the 1993 and 2015 voter lists, there is now no doubt about her Indian citizenship.