Gujarat: Custody battle for stepdaughter lands Pakistani woman in jail

AHMEDABAD: It was a

brief custody battle

for her

stepdaughter

that has now landed a 38-year-old woman behind bars with charges of forging her Indian identity and for unauthorized living in India while she is allegedly a Pakistani national.

The woman’s insistence to keep her 13-year-old stepdaughter’s custody and the latter’s consent sent the relatives of the child in a tizzy and they reported to the authorities that the woman does not hold a valid Indian citizenship.

Last week, the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) lodged an FIR against the woman for violation of the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act by forging documents to establish Indian citizenship. She was arrested on Tuesday leaving behind her stepdaughter as well as two more children from her

first marriage

fending for themselves.

The trouble began after her husband passed away on September 21 due to Covid-19. While the woman was living with her two kids from her first marriage, her husband’s daughter from his earlier marriage too joined her. The child’s maternal uncle insisted that the woman should hand over the child’s custody to the family, but she resisted. This resulted in a litigation in the high court.

The family apprehended that her sway over the child was actually aimed at grabbing the properties that her father and bureaucrat mother had left behind. They expressed apprehension before the high court that the woman would flee India for Dubai after disposing of the properties.

Last month, she gave an undertaking in the high court that she did not intend to leave India without her stepdaughter and she would look after her well being like her two kids from her first marriage.

Before the high court, the child too refused to join her maternal uncle and preferred her stepmother; he approached the police alleging the woman’s citizenship credentials were fake. The police delayed registering an FIR and another petition was filed in the HC.

On November 20, ATS inspector M C Nayak filed an FIR against the woman for forging documents like birth certificate, election card etc. to show she is an Indian citizen. The FIR claims that police recovered all documents and seized records that prove that she was born in Pakistan and is a Pakistani citizen. She was married and her two children were born in Pakistan. She fraudulently entered India through Nepal border. While she was born in Pakistan, she mentioned Kutch as her birthplace while registering her marriage with the Indian citizen.