Bengaluru, Sep 25: The Karnataka High Court has quashed a case against a Bangladeshi national, who overstayed in India after the expiry of her visa. The amendment to the Passport (Entry Into India) Act, in September 2015, came to her rescue as it provides for a Hindu facing religious persecution in Bangladesh, to be localised as an Indian citizen.
Tapassi claimed that her house was looted by gangs of extremists and her family led a precarious life. In this background, she was sent out of Bangladesh by her family in 2009. She came to India on a visa and married Mrunmay Biswas, a citizen of India, the following year. She returned to Bangladesh for a brief period and came back to India in 2011 on a student visa to undertake post-graduation course in Mysore University. Her husband is a software engineer.
Her visa expired in September 2013. But the deteriorating situation for Hindus in Bangladesh after the 'Shahbag Square Agitation' in February 2013, stopped her from going back.
She claimed that there were continued attacks on "minority Hindus, demolition of temples and religious structures, series of gang rapes of Hindu women, abduction and sale of Hindu girls to harems of landlords and brothels, forced conversion, mass murders, etc."
In 2014, the police in Mysuru arrested her for overstaying in India. Her husband approached the court to release her on bail. She was released on bail and had a child in 2015. A chargesheet was filed by the police in the case and she approached the HC to get the case quashed.
The HC noted that the government of India has issued a gazette notification in September 2015 amending the Passport (Entry Into India) Act, 1920. "As per the said amendment, a Bangladeshi, who was a Hindu facing religious persecution, could be localised as an Indian citizen," the court noted.
It also noted that the amendment notification by the government came after the case against her was lodged; she sought quashing of the case in the lower court. Therefore she had to approach the High Court with the same plea. Allowing her petition, the HC quashed the case against her in the lower court in Mysuru.
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