Declared Foreigner From Cachar Gets Indian Citizenship Under CAA, Lawyer Calls It ‘Historic’

In what is said to be a historic moment of the success of the Citizenship Amendment Act, A 60-year-old woman from Cachar’s Dholai area, who was earlier declared a foreigner by a Foreigners’ Tribunal of Assam in 2019 and even spent nearly two years in a detention camp, has now been granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The official documents issued on March 6, 2026, by the Ministry of Home Affairs granted a “Certificate of Naturalisation” to Dipali Das, wife of Abhimanyu Das, a resident of Hawaithang village under Dholai Police Station in Cachar district. The certificate states that she was previously a Bangladeshi national born on December 3, 1966, in Dippur village under Dhirai police station in Sylhet district of Bangladesh, and that she entered India on February 7, 1988. The certificate also notes that her citizenship takes effect from the date of her entry into India in 1988.

Das’s lawyer, Dharmananda Deb, described the development as a historic case. Speaking to Barak Bulletin he said, Dipali Das had applied for citizenship through the CAA portal on February 12, 2025, and after about a year, the government issued her citizenship certificate on March 6, 2026.

Deb further explained that Dipali Das had earlier been declared a foreigner by a Foreigners’ Tribunal on February 5, 2019. Following the tribunal’s order, she was detained at the Silchar detention camp from May 10, 2019, to May 17, 2021. After spending two years in detention, she was released on bail by the court. Later, after the CAA process opened, she applied for citizenship in February 2025.

Detailing the background of the case, Deb said Dipali Das married Abhimanyu Das on January 7, 1987, in Bangladesh. According to him, the couple migrated to India in 1988, allegedly due to religious persecution in Bangladesh, and settled in Cachar district. However, in 2013, Cachar Border Police registered a case against her and referred it to the Foreigners’ Tribunal, which eventually declared her a foreigner in 2019.

Deb said the very documents that identified her Bangladeshi origin were later used to support her citizenship application under the CAA. “She is probably the first declared foreigner to get citizenship in India under the CAA. The Border Police report clearly showed that her address was in Bangladesh’s Sylhet, and the same report helped establish her eligibility under the Act,” he said.

He further added that although the certificate was issued in 2026, the citizenship is effective from 1988, the year she entered India. “This means all her documents, including voter ID, Aadhaar and the birth certificates of her children, will now be considered valid,” Deb said.

Dipali Das has six children — five daughters and one son.

Deb also noted that he has so far assisted six individuals in Assam in obtaining citizenship under the CAA.