Uzbek woman, child out of Bhopal jail yet await freedom

Special Correspondent

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: The Uzbek woman, who was lodged in Bhopal jail for 10 months on charges of illegal entry into India, was released on Monday along with her baby daughter born in jail.

However, the mother and daughter have not yet achieved full freedom and would stay at the Bhopal Mahila Thana (women’s police station) till the arrangements for the duos’ travel to Uzbekistan are final.

The woman, Barno Djuraeva, 35, was in jail since January this year and the baby was born during her jail term. While Barno would be deported according to rules, the issue is about her daughter as she is born on Indian soil and would thus require either Indian passport or special documents to travel to Uzbekistan with her mother.

Sources told NewsBits.in that the process of preparing travel documents for the baby is on and would be received soon. Till then, Barno would have to stay in Bhopal and probably under safeguard of local police.

Vibhanshu Joshi, former member of the State Commission for Protection of Childrens’s Rights (SCPCR), who had communicated with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Twitter on the issue of passport for Barno’s child, said that he would be following up the matter.

Joshi told NewsBits.in that he had information that the documents for the child might be received soon, but would follow up on the issue.

Barno was arrested by Bhopal police in December 2015 was charged under Foreigners Act for illegal entry into the country and was sentenced to 10 months in prison on September 1.

However, she had already spent nine months in prison then and was thus released on Monday on completion of term.

The arrest and subsequent trial of Barno in Bhopal had raised several questions of rights violation.

The woman had herself approached the police claiming she was drugged and smuggled into India from Nepal and subsequently to Bhopal.

But she was charged with illegal entry while the man accompanying her was allowed to turn approver. She did not know English or Hindi and was yet not provided Uzbek translator and even the lawyer was provided very late. Also her family was not informed of her arrest.