On July 20 this year, an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court convicted her of escaping from custody but acquitted her of the charge under the Foreigners Act.

However, on completion of her sentence, instead of being released from the prison, she was sent back to the detention centre.

On October 1, the Jharkhand High Court asked a question that has followed the woman since she completed her first sentence in 2020: under what law is she still being detained?

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A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Akhil Kumar questioned “under what authority of law” the woman was continuing to be kept at the detention centre after the completion of her sentence.

Hazaribag SP told the HC that an inquiry would be initiated into the matter.

According to social worker and lawyer Apurva Vivek, who filed a habeas corpus petition on the 30-year-old’s behalf in the HC, the woman told her that she had been sexually assaulted multiple times by a police constable. The ordeal had caused her severe mental distress and was part of the circumstances behind her decision to escape.

Ordeal began in 2018

Married young after her father’s death, the woman’s life took a turn when she was arrested on February 2, 2018, relating to the alleged kidnapping of a child. The same year, in December, she was convicted under Section 363 of the IPC and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment, with the period already spent in custody set off against the sentence.

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On February 4, 2020, the woman completed the sentence. But instead of being released, she was shifted to the foreigners’ holding centre at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Central Jail (also known as JP Central Jail) campus in Hazaribag.

It was there that authorities began treating her as a Bangladeshi national.

For several years, the woman remained at the holding centre. According to the chronology placed before the HC, she was initially the only detainee there.

In November 2024, another woman, Nina Akter alias Khushi, was brought to the centre. On June 10, 2025, the duo along with another detainee escaped. They were apprehended the following day at Dhanbad railway station.

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A fresh case was registered at Lohsinghna police station in connection with the escape.

It is at this point that Vivek noticed something odd.

Instead of the woman’s real name, she was registered in case records as someone from the minority community. Her father’s name was also found to be different that what it is in her original records.

The case subsequently came before the Hazaribag court. The prosecution accused the three women of escaping from the foreigners’ holding camp and invoked Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.

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On July 20, the trial court stated that the prosecution had proved the charge relating to escape from custody and convicted all three accused under Section 262 read with Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

But the Foreigners Act charge did not stand, and the court acquitted the Jamtara woman.

The judgment recorded several gaps, including “the absence of authenticated cross-border records, original travel documents or validated nationality verification material establishing their foreign status.”

The investigating officer also admitted that documents including an Aadhaar card and SIM allegedly connected to the woman had not been verified with the issuing authorities. The court, therefore, while convicting her of the escape, acquitted her of the Foreigners Act offence.

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In its October 1 judgment, the court made a broader observation on personal liberty: “We are living in the era of Article 21 of the Constitution of India and the inherent liberty conferred upon a human being cannot be taken away without any authority of law.”

The court directed the Hazaribag District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to record the woman’s statement. It also sought an inquiry by the Hazaribag Superintendent of Police (SP) into the allegation against the constable and directed the Inspector General of Prisons to participate in the proceedings.

The SP told the court that a thorough inquiry into the allegation would be initiated. The Home Secretary of Jharkhand has been directed to appear before the court on October 5. Reports from the DLSA and the SP have also been sought.

SP, Hazaribag, could not be contacted for comment despite attempts.