A CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR: For the first time, a declared Bangladeshi has been granted Indian citizenship under the CAA. Biswajit Pegu, Director of Census Operation of Assam, on Friday issued the citizenship certificate of Depali Das, a 60-year-old housewife of Dholai Hawaithang, who was earlier declared a foreigner by a Tribunal and even spent two years in Silchar jail. Pegu, in the ‘Certificate of Naturalization,’ stated that the government granted citizenship to Depali Das from the date she entered India from Bangladesh.
Depali Das, mother of six daughters and a son, was born in Dherai, Sylhet, on January 3, 1966. Her husband, Abhimanya Das, was also a Bangladeshi. She entered India on February 7, 1988, after her marriage in 1987, and the family settled in Dholai. However, she was declared a foreigner by the Tribunal on February 5, 2019. She was sent to a detention camp on May 10, 2019, and after two years, was released on bail on May 17, 2021. Her lawyer Dharmananda Deb said that Depali Das applied for citizenship under the CAA on February 12, 2025, and was finally granted Indian citizenship on Friday.
A jubilant Deb, who had earlier ensured citizenship for at least four persons under the CAA, said that the case of Depali Das was unique in the sense that, for the first time, a declared foreigner had been granted Indian citizenship under the CAA.
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