A 59-year-old woman from Cachar district who was earlier declared a foreigner and detained for nearly two years has been granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), her lawyer said on March 7. Depali Das of Hawaithang in the Dholai Assembly constituency is the first person in Assam who had been declared a foreigner, held in a detention centre and later granted citizenship under the CAA, her lawyer Dharmananda Deb confirmed.
Das was declared an illegal migrant by a Foreigners’ Tribunal in February 2019. Following the tribunal order, police detained her and sent her to the Silchar detention centre on May 10, 2019. She was released on bail on May 17, 2021, after a Supreme Court directive allowed the release of certain detainees who had spent prolonged periods in detention.
According to Deb, Das was originally from Dippur village under Dhirai police station in Sylhet district, Bangladesh. She married Abhimanyu Das of Parai village under Baniachong police station in Habiganj district in 1987. The couple entered India in 1988 and have been living in Cachar district since then.
Das’s citizenship first came under scrutiny in 2013 when police opened an inquiry. A chargesheet filed on July 2, 2013, stated she was a resident of Baniachong in Bangladesh and had entered India after March 1971. “The chargesheet later proved crucial in her application for Indian citizenship under the CAA because applicants must produce documentary proof of migration from Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan,” Deb said. He added that many applicants fail to produce such documents, but the police chargesheet was accepted as valid proof in Das’s case.
After her 2021 release, Das told Deb she would apply for citizenship once CAA rules were notified in 2024. Her first CAA hearing took place on February 24, 2025, at the Silchar office of the Superintendent of Post Offices, an authority designated to process CAA applications. Two further hearings were held, documents were uploaded to the Ministry of Home Affairs, and following field verification by Home Ministry officials she was called for a final appearance on May 25, 2025.
Das received her official Indian citizenship certificate on March 6, 2026. Social activist Kamal Chakraborty said the certificate also matters for her family: Das has four children-one son and three daughters-all born in India, and their mother’s certificate could serve as supporting documentation if their citizenship status is ever questioned.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, offers a route to Indian citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India between March 25, 1971, and December 31, 2014. The law sparked widespread protests, particularly in Assam, over concerns about demographic impact and the Assam Accord. Before Das, four Bangladeshi nationals living in Assam had already been granted Indian citizenship under the CAA.
Original Source: https://assamtribune.com/assam/declared-foreigner-in-cachar-granted-indian-citizenship-under-caa-1609156
Category: Assam,Featured
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Publish Date: 2026-03-07 14:15:00
