A Nepali Muslim woman, who was languishing in Cachar jail in Silchar in Assam, India for almost four years on the suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national, has been released on Monday. 

Jannat Khatun Laheri, a 62-year-old woman of Haripur Municipality-6, was released from prison on the initiative of Nepal’s Consulate General in Kolkata and a social organisation called Bal Suraksha Abhiyan. 

Laheri has been handed over to her son Firoz Laheri, according to Bikas Pradhan, the head of the Kalimpong-based social organisation in India. 

Laheri was arrested by the Indian Border Security Force from the Cachar district of Assam in 2018. The Silchar court sentenced her to two years in jail and a fine of IRs1,000. 

Laheri was supposed to be released in 2020 but was kept in jail illegally after she could not provide proof of being a Nepali.