What We Know So Far: July 18, 2025
In a troubling turn in the ongoing writ petition filed by Abdul Rejjak, the Gauhati High Court on July 18, 2025, directed the State authorities to clarify the actual identity and whereabouts of the petitioner’s wife, Doyjan Bibi, after conflicting reports emerged about whether she had been deported across the Indo-Bangladesh border in late May. The Gauhati High Court (GHC) pulled up the State authorities for failing to provide a clear answer on the whereabouts of Doyjan Bibi.
At the last hearing on June 25, the State had informed the Court, based on written instructions from the Senior Superintendent of Police, Dhubri, that Doyjan Bibi had been handed over to the BSF Sector Headquarters, Panbari, on May 26, 2025 for the purpose of deportation to Bangladesh. This reversal in the claim had come after the Court had been informed, based on verbal instructions received by the counsel of Foreigner Tribunal, that Doyjan Bibi is kept in Kokrajhar Holding Centre. During the June 25 hearing, the State had also sought time to obtain further information from the BSF regarding her current status and location. The Court had then directed the State to provide a specific update on her whereabouts, and if she had been deported, to clarify the location and circumstances of such deportation. However, in the present hearing, the State produced BSF records showing that “a Doyjan Bibi, wife of Abdul Munnaf” had been handed over by Assam Police and pushed back to Bangladesh on May 27, 2025.
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However, as the Court pointedly noted that this was not the woman whose custody is being questioned before them. Notably, Citizens for Justice and Peace has been providing legal aid in this case.
Background: A trail of changing claims
Doyjan Bibi’s disappearance has become emblematic of the growing allegations of illegal deportation without due process in Assam. Her family had alleged that she was picked up from their home in Chatabari Gaon, Dhubri district, at approximately 1:00 AM on May 25, by local police. No arrest memo was given. No FIR was registered. No magistrate produced her.
Following this, Abdul Rejjak filed a writ petition in the Gauhati High Court seeking disclosure of her whereabouts and immediate relief.
At the first hearing on June 16, the FT counsel for the State claimed, based only on a verbal telephonic update, that Doyjan was in the Kokrajhar Holding Centre. On this basis alone, the Court allowed the petitioner and one family member to visit the centre and obtain her signature on a vakalatnama.
But when the family reached Kokrajhar, she was not there.
At the next hearing on June 25, the State made a completely different submission—now in writing. It stated that Doyjan Bibi had, in fact, been handed over to the BSF Sector Headquarters, Panbari, on May 26, 2025, for deportation to Bangladesh. No prior notice of this alleged transfer had been issued to the family, nor had she been produced before any magistrate for judicial authorisation of the deportation.
The Court, alarmed by these developments, had directed the State to obtain formal confirmation from the BSF regarding the whereabouts and status of Doyjan Bibi and provide this to the Court by the next date.
Details of the previous hearings may be read here.
Hearing of July 18: The ‘wrong Doyjan’?
At the hearing on July 18, counsel for the State produced a copy of the official communication received from the Frontier Headquarters of the BSF, Guwahati. The document stated that “on the request of Assam Police, amongst others, Doyjan Bibi, wife of Abdul Munnaf, was handed over to them and sent back to Bangladesh from the area of responsibility of the 2503 Battalion BSF, Dhubri, on May 27, 2025.”
However, this update led to immediate confusion in court. Advocate Mrinmoy Dutta, appearing for the petitioner, clarified that the Doyjan Bibi is the wife of Abdul Rejjak—not of Abdul Munnaf. He submitted that there is no such alias in use and that the identity of the petitioner’s husband is well established as Abdul Rejjak alone. He further requested that the State clarify the true identity of the woman who was handed over to the BSF and allegedly pushed back into Bangladesh.
Taking note of the confusion and the unresolved issue of identity, the Court stated on record that if the BSF’s communication relates to a different person—i.e., the wife of Abdul Munnaf—it does not answer the petitioner’s prayer, which concerns the whereabouts of the wife of Abdul Rejjak.
In a stern observation, the Bench told the State that it was their duty to establish the whereabouts of the woman named in the petition—Doyjan Bibi, wife of Abdul Rejjak.
In its order, the Court noted: “The instructions produced by the State pertain to a different individual — Doyjan Bibi, wife of Abdul Munnaf — and are therefore returned. The counsel for FT matters is directed to obtain relevant instructions in this particular case concerning Doyjan Bibi, wife of Abdul Rejjak.”
The matter has now been listed for further hearing on July 25, 2025.
Sharp legal and ethical questions
The case of Doyjan Bibi underscores the wider pattern of irregular and possibly unlawful deportations currently under judicial scrutiny. In similar cases like those of Samsul Ali, Abdul Sheikh, and Majibur Rehman—also argued by Advocate Mrinmoy Dutta with their legal aid being provided by CJP—the Court has taken note of detentions and disappearances of individuals released under long-standing COVID-era bail orders, only to resurface in detention camps or in BSF custody, with no formal arrest documentation.
In the present matter, what began as a disappearance has now escalated into a possible case of mistaken identity, or worse—an undocumented pushback of a woman without verification, paperwork, or judicial authorisation.
The Gauhati High Court, in earlier orders, had made it clear that deportation must follow proper procedures, including production before a magistrate and intimation to the family. That none of these were followed in Doyjan’s case, and that her location is still unknown despite two months having passed, places a constitutional spotlight on the lack of procedural accountability in Assam’s deportation apparatus.
Related:
After incorrect detention claim, Gauhati HC was informed that Doyjan Bibi was handed over to BSF