Guwahati, Jan 24: The family members of 62-year-old Nepal woman Jannat Khatun reached Silchar to take back the old lady who was found in Foreigners Detention Centre in Assam’s Silchar but jail authorities didn’t give permission for her release.
The jail authorities said they needed permission from Home Department to release her.
Jannat Khatun’s son Feroz Leheri with other relatives reached Assam’s Silchar from Nepal to take back her mother, who had been missing since 2018. They reached Silchar on January 9.
She is presently admitted to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in a critical health condition. The doctors said she is suffering from chronic tuberculosis and severe blood deficiency.
Feroz Leheri has become very anxious to meet his missing mother, who has travelled from Nepal to take back his mother, but due to international procedure between the two countries it’s taking time to release Jannat.
Jannat was arrested from an area near India-Bangladesh international border in Assam’s Cachar district in November 2018. She was sent to Silchar Central Jail and post trial, district-level court announced a two-year sentence for her, which ended in 2020.
Superintendent of Silchar Central Jail Sudip Banerjee said, “She served two years of imprisonment under the Passports Act, 1967 for entering to Indian territory without valid documents. Her term ended in 2020 and she is eligible for deportation since then.”
“After searching for past four years, I have found my mother in Assam’s Silchar jail. When she left home, her health was good but now only skins and bones left in her body. The doctors here say that she is suffering from tuberculosis and having blood deficiency,” Feroz said.
Feroz Leheri is a resident of Lakshmipur area of Nepal’s Sarlahi district. Leheri said his mother after a head injury caused by an accident in 2018, her behaviour changed and one day she went missing.
“I came here to take back my mother but the process has been very lengthy. Her health condition has deteriorated and now she has been admitted at hospital for treatment,” he said.
Silchar-based human rights organisation Citizens Rights Protection Committee (CRPC) had written letter to Consulate General of Nepal in Kolkata in September last year about her.
