Hasina Bhanu was sent to the Tezpur detention centre in October
A 55-year-old woman in Assam - held in a detention centre inside Tezpur Jail for two months on grounds she is a foreigner - has been released after the Gauhati High Court reversed a contentious decision by the tribunal court in March.
A furious High Court this week pulled up a Foreigners' Tribunal in Darrang district for its shocking flip-flop in this case; in August 2016 the tribunal said Hasina Bhanu was, in fact, an Indian citizen.
Fast-forward to March 2020 and the same tribunal ruled Mrs Bhanu as a 'foreigner'.
Last night Mrs Bhanu was back home - Shyampur village in Darrang district - where she told NDTV she felt she had been targeted because of her religion; she is Muslim.
"Inside the jail, inside the detention centre, there is enormous harassment. There were many Hindus and also Muslims... and I think I was targeted since I am Muslim," she said.
"For the second tribunal case I submitted the order from the first case (in which she was declared an Indian citizen) but the tribunal gave a different order. Now again I have been proved Indian."
"But my question to the government is 'why have you harassed me this way?'" she said.
Mrs Bhanu's husband, Ayen Ali, with whom she has two sons, told NDTV the struggle to prove his wife's citizenship was mentally draining. It was also hugely expensive.
"For two months she was in jail... it was mental harassment for us. We had to spend a lot of money over the past five years (starting from the 2016 tribunal hearing). I sold my land to arrange for legal fees. Now she is declared Indian... I request government to compensate us," Ayen Ali said.
An angry High Court has made several observations on the tribunal's faulty orders.
Citing a precedent in the Supreme Court, Justice N Kotishwar Singh said "we are unable to understand how the tribunal examined the matter". He said the second hearing - in which Mrs Bhanu was declared a 'foreigner' - was illegal as it violated Article 141 of the Constitution.
Article 141 says the "Law (as) declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all Courts within the territory of India".
"The tribunal was aware the petitioner is the same person who was first declared Indian... the petitioner, despite being Indian, had to face dentition," Zakir Hussian, Mrs Bhanu's counsel told NDTV.