Dipali Das released from detention camp, but her family has been torn apart in these two years

On Monday, a woman named Dipali Das was released from the detention camp at the Silchar Central Jail. When someone spends these many days as a prisoner in a detention camp, not only is the woman devastated but her entire family also gets devastated. On May 5, 2019, Dipali Das, then aged 53, was arrested. She used to run a food stall and feed the household, including the education of her children. After she was sent to the detention camp, her food stall got shutdown. By then, her husband had lost his mental balance, the girls had stopped studying, and the balance of her family got completely shattered. When she was sent to the detention camp, the situation was still normal, now in lockdown, she does not know how to bring her family back to normalcy.

Last year, the Supreme Court had ordered that those who had spent two years in detention camps be released on bail. Hence, one by one, many prisoners were released from the Silchar Central Jail, but their suffering did not end. They have to report to the police weekly and their freedom is much restricted than five other ordinary people. Even after returning home in such a horrible situation, they have to toil hard to find a way to earn a living. And such examples are plenty around us.

The father of Dipali Das, a resident of Singduar village in Dhalchhara area under the Dholai assembly constituency, was an Indian citizen and there is ample evidence to support this claim. Her father Suresh Chandra Das voted as an Indian citizen in 1965 which is clearly mentioned in the list of the Election Commission. When Dipali Das was born in 1966, birth certificates were not officially issued in Assam. This process was rather started in 1978. Dipali did not get a chance to study in any school and no documents either were prepared for her marriage. As a result, even though she is her father’s daughter, she does not have any paper that can support her father’s relationship with her. Hence, Dipali lost the case and was subsequently arrested.

Dipali Das’s daughter Arpita Das is studying in a college, but she had to struggle a lot. Her mother was arrested while her younger sister was still in high school, but she has not been able to study since. Another sister is trying to get admission in high secondary after passing HSLC. However, the most agonising situation is that of Dipali Das’s husband Abhimunya Das. He became mentally devastated after not being able to bear the humiliation of his wife’s arrest. Gradually his condition began to deteriorate and now he remembers almost nothing. He has been behaving like a child since then. Family members are sceptical about how much the husband will recover mentally after his wife returned home after two years.

Dipali Das used to sell various food items like pulao in front of BNMP school in Dholai. In this way, she managed to handle the burden of her entire family. One day at noon, three police officers came and asked her to go to the police station, due to some NRC work. After going to the local police station, she was then told to go to Silchar, by then she started suspecting. When she was finally undergoing a medical examination, she realised that the police were about to arrest her. However, police officials said that she would not be sent to jail, rather would be taken to Silchar for a job. That same night she was put into a detention camp.

After spending two years there, when the opportunity to be released finally came, then it became an obstacle to get bail. Her children could not find anyone as their guarantor. Finally, at the request of social worker Kamal Chakraborty, Malay Das, a member of the Beekshan Cine Commune, agreed to be the guarantor. Dipali Das hence got the opportunity to get out of jail and go home on Monday afternoon.

Before getting out, she lamented by saying “No one will be able to bring back what I and my family have lost in these two years. I don’t know how to handle the way my family has been devastated. The situation was normal then, but now I’m clueless at this moment as to how we’ll earn. But the hardest part is my husband getting sick. Having been away from family for two years, he has suffered a lot alone. Now, we have to fight the situation together again and try to live a normal life.”

Social activist Kamal Chakraborty said, “D voters in Silchar detention camp have got a chance to be released in the past one year. Now another person is still in the detention camp. If he gets released, no one else will be left in the detention camp in Silchar for the time being. However, their suffering didn’t stop there even after they were released on bail. Those who have gone home are constantly being asked to visit court and in this case, too we are trying to be by their side. Almost everyone has got the required documents but is still being unable to prove their citizenship due to minor inaccuracies suffering unbearable pain. Our people’s representatives should pay more attention to this, then only these people will be protected.”