On June 3, Mumtaz was moved from Matia to a holding centre at Eraligool in Sribhumi district, more than 400 km away.(Express photo)More than three months ago, his mother Mumtaz Begum was deported to Bangladesh. On September 3, the Gauhati High Court directed the Ministry of External Affairs to make efforts to trace and repatriate the 43-year-old, observing that “the State machinery, acting in tandem, had prevented the detenue to exhaust her right to move this Court” against a Foreigners’ Tribunal opinion that declared her a foreigner.
The court ordered an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the tribunal’s opinion that led to her deportation, and laid down interim safeguards governing the arrest and transfer of persons declared foreigners in Assam. It also issued a rare direction to the Assam government to pay Rs 2 lakh in interim compensation to her husband Mujammel Hoque, and ordered efforts to facilitate her return.