Supreme Court seeks reports from union ministries on Assam woman jailed in Pakistan

Assam woman Wahida Begum and her 10-year-old son, who were captured in Pakistan and are currently being held in jail, were the subject of a hearing by the Supreme Court of India on March 20. The hearing was attended by representatives from the foreign ministry, home ministry, Advocate of the government of Assam, and the legal representative of the Embassy of Pakistan in India.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court directed all union ministries to submit their reports within three weeks for the hearing process. This was in response to Advocate Santosh Suman's comments, who stated that the union home ministry's negligence in overlooking information provided by the foreign ministry regarding the capture of Wahida Begum and her son was unacceptable.

Wahida Begum's mother, Ajitha Khatun, also made allegations during the hearing, claiming that the person who abducted her daughter and grandson went by the name Selim Khan but was actually Jiya Rahman from Pakistan. She further alleged that Prasenjit Dutta, Ranjit Dutta, and two others named Kabuli Khan and Selim Khan were involved in the case, and that Nagaon BJP MLA Rupak Sharma was protecting them.

The case had previously been heard by a three-judge bench of the apex court on February 21, where it was decided that the home ministry and foreign ministry should submit their reports. The matter was posted for further hearing on February 28.

According to the Nagaon Police, Wahida Begum had allegedly been duped and taken to Saudi Arabia on the pretext of marriage using forged documents before being taken to Pakistan. She had been arrested on charges of illegally entering the country. The woman had been widowed two years prior and had sold all her property before leaving Nagaon in November with a man who had promised to marry her.

The police came to know about her whereabouts in Pakistan after the woman’s mother received a letter from a law firm in Pakistan that informed her about her daughter and grandson’s arrest and that they had been lodged in the district jail of Quetta in Pakistan’s Baluchistan.

The mother of Wahida Begum had filed a petition in the Delhi high court and also wrote to President Droupadi Murmu seeking the repatriation of her daughter and grandson.

The case is ongoing and the Supreme Court will continue to hear the matter as more information is submitted by the various ministries involved.