Bhanu, who reached her home in Shyampur village in Darang district, a day after her release, said on Friday that her life was ruined as her husband had to sell his cultivated land to fight a legal battle to prove that he was a foreigner. No, but genuine Indian citizens.
Bhanu told PTI over phone, “Great injustice has happened to me… my self-esteem has been shattered, we have been mentally tortured and we are in financial trouble. I thank the Gauhati High Court and my lawyer Zakir Hussain for ensuring my release. I hope the court will instruct the authorities to give us adequate compensation, otherwise we will be ruined.”
Hasina Bhanu alias Hasna Bhanu was declared ‘Indian’ in 2016 and ‘foreigner’ in 2021, following which she was arrested and kept in a detention camp at Tezpur Jail in October 2021. However, the Gauhati High Court this week overturned an earlier decision of a tribunal.
The Darrang Foreigners Tribunal upheld Bhanu’s Indian citizenship in August 2016, but the same tribunal declared her a foreigner after the Assam Police said she was a suspected Bangladeshi.
.