Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar seeking his intervention to trace and bring back two women from Nagaon district who were allegedly "illegally pushed back" across the India-Bangladesh border in June.
According to a PTI report, The letter, written on Friday and made available to the media on Saturday, came ahead of the October 6 by-election to the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency.
Gogoi claimed that the alleged pushback violated due legal process and that the whereabouts of the two women remained unknown. He urged Jaishankar to take up the matter with authorities in Bangladesh, trace the women and facilitate their safe return.
According to Gogoi, Jahanara Begum of Bagariguri and Mumtaz Begum of Dhing Gaon were sent across the border on the intervening night of June 13 and 14 and there has been no information about them since.
"The Gauhati High Court has already made the Ministry of External Affairs a party in this matter, so we seek your personal and urgent intervention in the case," Gogoi, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said in the letter.
Giving details of the case, Gogoi said the Foreigners Tribunal in Nagaon had declared both women foreigners in 2019. They challenged the tribunal's orders before the Gauhati High Court, which in April 2026 set aside the orders and remanded both cases to the tribunal for fresh consideration, citing failure to properly examine material evidence.
Following the High Court's directions, Jahanara appeared before the tribunal on May 29 and Mumtaz on May 30. However, both were taken into custody, which, Gogoi claimed, deprived them of an opportunity to obtain fresh orders from the tribunal and challenge them before the High Court.
The Gauhati High Court observed on September 3 that the state had effectively prevented Mumtaz from exhausting her legal remedy of approaching the court. Similar findings were recorded in Jahanara's case, Gogoi said.
The court also examined expulsion orders issued by the Nagaon District Commissioner on June 2, directing the women to leave India within 24 hours even though they were already in state custody.
Gogoi claimed that the two women were subsequently handed over to the Border Security Force and pushed back across the border through Gate No. 2 near Border Pillar No. 1339/MP.
He urged the External Affairs Ministry to immediately take up the matter with the Bangladesh government and asked that the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and the Assistant High Commission in Sylhet pursue the case with the relevant authorities to facilitate the women's return.
Gogoi said the families of both women had been searching for them for months and argued that "individuals cannot simply disappear after being taken into state custody and pushed across an international border".
(With inputs from PTI)