AURANGABAD: “It feels like I have entered paradise,” 65-year-old Hasina Begam said after getting down from the train at the Aurangabad railway station on Tuesday night.
It was a homecoming for Begam after spending 18 years in prison in Pakistan. She had gone to the neighbouring country to meet relatives but landed up in jail after losing her passport and other belongings as soon as she reached there. She could not tell the Pakistani police where her relatives resided as she had lost their address details too.
Back home in India, Begam’s name got deleted from the voters’ list over the years after she was not found to be residing at her husband’s home in Saharanpur (UP) or even in her native Aurangabad. In the absence of any identity proof, the Aurangabad police finally traced the registration of a 600 sq ft plot in her name that she had purchased about three decades ago to establish her identity and facilitate her return to India.
“Our policemen did a tremendous job by tracing her relatives as well as the plot she had purchased,” Aurangabad commissioner of police Nikhil Gupta told TOI.
While Begam did not want to talk about her incarceration in Pakistan, her nephew, Zainuddin Chisthi, who was at the railway station to receive her, told TOI, “She was married to one Dilshad Ahmed of Nawab Ka Qila in Saharanpur. She went to Lahore in Pakistan to meet some of her relatives. Before she could meet them, she lost her possessions. Suspecting her to be a spy, the police arrested her and she was sent to the Lahore jail.”
While in prison, Begam gave the authorities her husband’s details and address. “This was passed on to the Indian authorities and central agencies reached out to Ahmed about five years ago. However, he could not share any of her identity proofs, including their nikah-nama, following which her file was closed with a negative remark,” said Chisthi.
A couple of years ago, Begam made a fresh plea with the Pakistani authorities and gave details about her sister and nephew (Chisthi), who live in Rashidpura, Aurangabad. Based on communication received from the government, Aurangabad’s City Chowk police led by inspector Sambhaji Pawar and his team led by assistant sub-inspector Riyaz Ahmed tracked down Chisthi and his mother and learnt of the plot Begam had purchased. “Using the copy of the purchase, Begam’s identity was established and this paved her return back home,” said Pawar.
Begam was handed over to the Indian authorities in December 2020, but could not travel back to Aurangabad due to the Covid-19 restrictions and the ongoing farmers’ protest. She was accommodated at the hostel of the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar before being sent back to Aurangabad.
Chisthi told TOI, “Begam did not have children. Later, Ahmed married another woman. My aunt continued to live with him but would frequent Aurangabad. She did not come for my marriage in 2002 but we did not question her as she was short-tempered. After six years of marriage, I went to Saharanpur and found that she had gone to Pakistan and had not returned since then. Ahmed was under the impression that she had returned from Pakistan and was living in Aurangabad.”
Speaking to TOI, inspector Pawar said, “Her nephew told us that they tried to trace Begam in vain after learning she had not returned to India for years. But we too are trying to find out as to why no missing complaint was registered by her husband or her relatives all these years.”