GUWAHATI: The state government is expecting Bangladesh to send back a Hindu girl from Karimganj, who had entered the neighbouring country illegally after she eloped with a Muslim boy from
Dhaka. The girl converted to Islam and the two have got married.
The 21-year-old girl,
Mousumi Das, who is now Fatima
Zannat, went missing from her home on March 12 and her parents filed a kidnapping case with Karimganj Police. On March 27, a video on WhatsApp went viral in Karimganj which showed the girl sitting inside a Dhaka police station. Another video showed her confessing that she has not been kidnapped but that she had eloped with her lover,
Numan Badsha, whom she met at a trade fair in Karimganj. Clad in a burkha, she is seen in the video saying she has converted to Islam and is living happily with her new family at Dhaka.
A government source said, "We are in touch with the Bangladesh embassy and expect that Bangladesh will take note of her illegal entry into the country. We are expecting law to take its own course."
Karimganj district superintendent of police Gaurav Upadhya told TOI, "She has deposed before the first secretary of the Indian embassy at Dhaka that she has willingly entered Bangladesh through
Agartala and has converted to Islam and is now married to Numan Badsha."
"Though the case has been registered with us as a kidnapping case, it now appears that she has eloped and she is not a minor. From our side the case is pretty much over. It is now for Bangladesh authorities to deal with her as per the laws of their land because she has entered the country illegally. If that happens, Bangladesh will have to hand her over to Indian authorities and then we may have to step in again," the SP said.
However, BJP legislator Siladitya Deb smells a designed move in the case of Mousumi and he plans to move external affairs minister
Sushma Swaraj soon on this. "I will be requesting the minister not to provide long term visas to Bangladeshi Muslims. These people come to India disguised as businessmen and then elope with our Hindu girls to Bangladesh, convert them and get married. This has to be stopped."
Numan had come on a business visa to participate at a trade expo at Karimganj, where he met Mousumi before they fell in love.
