Guwahati: The Supreme Court wrapped up the day’s hearing in the case of Assam woman Wahida Begum and her 10-year-old son, who were captured in Pakistan and are presently detained there, in the presence of representatives of the foreign ministry, home ministry, advocate for the government of Assam, and the legal representative of the Pakistani Embassy in India.
The highest court ordered all union ministries to submit their reports for the hearing process within three weeks after hearing the case.
On March 9, the Indian Embassy in Pakistan formally acknowledged receiving information from the Pakistani Foreign Ministry that Wahida Begum and her 10-year-old son were being detained in a jail there.
Speaking about the matter, Advocate Santosh Suman said, “The union home ministry overlooking the information let out by the foreign ministry about the capture of Wahida Begum and her 10-year-old son in Pakistan is a gross negligence on their part. We cannot accept it,”
Meanwhile, Ajitha Khatun, the mother of Wahida Begum alleged, “The person who abducted my daughter and grandchild went by the name Selim Khan. However, he is actually Jiya Rahman from Pakistan. How was he able to enter India with fake passport and visa? Prasenjit Dutta and Ranjit Dutta are also involved. A probe from the authorities will reveal everything.”
On February 21, the SC previously heard a case involving the safe return to India of a mother from Nagaon, Assam, and her son from a prison in Pakistan.
The case of Wahida Begum, 36, a resident of Assam’s Nagaon district, and her son, who went missing in November of last year and later showed up in a Pakistani jail, was heard today by a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court bench sent a notification to the home ministry and the foreign ministry after hearing the case of Wahida Begum from Nagaon. In addition, the court scheduled a new hearing for February 28.
Wahida Begum’s mother has made serious accusations against Nagaon BJP Legislator Rupak Sharma of shielding people involved in the case. Wahida Begum’s mother has been fighting alone for her daughter’s safe release and had previously filed a petition with the Delhi High Court seeking her repatriation.
Naming the accused in the matter, Wahida Begum’s mother Ajitha Khatun said, “Nagaon MLA Rupak Sharma has been giving protection to the accused Prasenjit Dutta and Ranjit Dutta. He is also protecting two others named Kabuli Khan and Selim Khan in the matter.”
Ajitha Khatun also charged the Nagaon BJP MLA with engaging in financial misconduct. She claimed that Legislator Rupak Sharma paid just Rs 60 lakhs for the Nagaon Khan Complex, which is estimated to be worth Rs 4 crores.
Having lodged the claims, Khatun went on to implore the Assam Chief Minister for justice for her daughter and grandson.
It should be mentioned that Wahida Begum’s case, in which she went missing in November of last year and was later found in a jail in Pakistan, was reported to Nagaon Police in Assam on January 6. According to the Nagaon Police, she had been arrested on suspicion of entering the nation illegitimately.
Leena Doley, the superintendent of Nagaon Police, claimed that Wahida Begum had initially been deceived and sent to Saudi Arabia under the guise of marriage using falsified documents. She had been transported to Pakistan from there. Doley claimed that the Nagaon woman had been widowed two years prior, sold all of her belongings, and departed Nagaon in November with a guy who had made a marriage proposal to her.
The police learned about her whereabouts in that country once the woman’s mother in Nagaon received a letter from a law company in Pakistan informing her about her daughter and grandson’s detention and that they had been imprisoned in the district jail of Quetta in Pakistan’s Baluchistan.
The mother of Wahida Begum then lodged a police complaint after receiving a phone call from her daughter confirming her situation. Nagaon SP Doley said, “The woman was able to make calls to her mother over social media platforms using a phone given to her by someone from the jail staff. She told her mother she was duped with the promise of marriage and taken to Saudi Arabia using fake documents and from there to Pakistan.”
“It appears she and her son along with the man, who took her from Nagaon to Saudi Arabia, were arrested in Pakistan when they tried to enter the country using fake documents,” the Nagaon SP further said.
The Nagaon Police in Assam also had a talk to the woman but the details of how she arrived in Pakistan were sketchy, Doley mentioned. She said, “It appears she and her son along with the man, who took her from Nagaon to Saudi Arabia, were arrested in Pakistan when they tried to enter the country using fake documents.”
The woman and her son were kept in separate jail wards, while another man, suspected to be an Afghan national who had taken them to Saudi Arabia and then to Pakistan, had also been lodged in the same jail but in a separate ward. “The woman and her son are stated to be in good condition and not tortured,” said the Nagaon SP.
According to SP Doley, Nagaon Police had raised the issue with higher officials, including those in New Delhi, and were attempting to securely bring the woman and her son back.
In addition to writing to President Droupadi Murmu, the woman’s mother petitioned the Delhi High Court for the return of her daughter and grandson.
However, the Delhi High Court dismissed the case, claiming that it was beyond of its purview, and instructed Nagaon Police to take the matter up with the Gauhati High Court.
The mother of the woman said that she had come to know of her daughter’s disappearance on December 12 when she had gone to visit her. “I was told by her neighbours that she sold off her property and was taken away by three persons. I approached the Nagaon police after that and lodged a case of kidnapping,” she said.
Her mother also claimed that the woman might have been abducted because of problems with the land or because of how much money she obtained after selling her Nagaon property.
