A 60-year-old Hindu woman previously declared a foreigner and detained for nearly two years in Assam has been granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). She had entered India from Bangladesh to escape religious persecution, after which she was caught and sent to a detention centre.
Dipali Das, a resident of Hawaithang village in the Dholai area under Dholai Police Station in Cachar district, received her Certificate of Naturalisation from the Ministry of Home Affairs on 6 March 2026. The citizenship is effective from 8 February 1988, the date she entered India.
Born in Sylhet district in Bangladesh in 1966, Dipali Das entered India in 1988 as a victim of religious persecution. As she is a Hindu, she is eligible for citizenship under the CAA, which provides a pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim migrants (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians) from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014.
In 2019, following an investigation by a police officer named Azmal Hossain Laskar, she was declared a foreigner by a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam and arrested on 5 May that year. She spent nearly two years in the Silchar Central Jail detention camp. The woman was released in 2021, in line with a Supreme Court order permitting the release of detainees who had completed two years in such facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After her release, Das applied for citizenship under the CAA on 12 February 2025. She submitted supporting documents, including proof of her residence in Sylhet, Bangladesh, her entry into India before the 2014 cutoff date, and her Hindu faith. Her existing documents, such as voter card and Aadhaar card, were verified as valid. A Border Police report confirming her Bangladeshi address reportedly helped establish her eligibility under the Act.
Notably, the police report that got her declared an illegal foreigner and put her in the detention camp also helped her in getting her citizenship under the CAA. The police probe report had documented that she had entered from Bangladesh and mentioned the date of entry; therefore, it was easy to prove that she is eligible for citizenship under CAA.
Her lawyer, prominent Silchar advocate Dharmananda Deb, assisted in the process, along with social worker Kamal Chakraborty. Deb described the case as historic, noting that Dipali Das is probably the first person previously declared a foreigner to receive Indian citizenship under the CAA.
