The Gauhati High Court, in a ruling on Thursday, directed the Ministry of External Affairs and the Assam government to trace Mumtaz Begum, a Dhing resident who was expelled to Bangladesh on June 13, 2026.
Begum, who was first declared a foreigner by the Foreigners’ Tribunal in Nagaon on June 6, 2019, had her 2019 order overturned by the High Court on April 20, 2026, after the tribunal failed to consider all evidence.
Following the court’s April ruling, Begum and her husband, Mujammel Hoque, appeared before the tribunal and produced the court order. Yet police arrested her on May 30, transferred her to the detention centre at Matia and, on June 3, handed her over to the Border Security Force for deportation.
The High Court had earlier summoned a state‑level inquiry on July 3, 2025, which was completed and the report was filed by a division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Pranjal Das after receiving it from the tribunal’s standing counsel.
New Delhi has already communicated the case to Dhaka, and the Assam government has finished its internal investigation, but the court now requires both the Centre and the state to report the woman’s current location.
The next step will see the parties submit a status report by the end of next month, and the court may consider further action if Begum remains unaccounted for.