AGARTALA: Nearly ten months after she was detained at Sabroom Railway Station on suspicion of being an undocumented foreign national, a woman identified as Louis Nigat Arther Baano was convicted and sentenced to two years’ simple imprisonment on Monday.
The verdict was delivered by the Court of the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), South Tripura, in a case that had briefly been committed to the Sessions Court before being sent back for trial.
According to the case records, Sub-Inspector Asish De of Sabroom Police Station received a call on October 11, 2025, from the Government Railway Police (GRP) informing him that a woman was behaving suspiciously at the railway station.
On reaching the spot, the police found that GRP personnel, led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Subrata Kumar Nag, had already detained the woman after she was seen walking away from the station exit following her arrival on the Kanchenjunga Express.
She was brought to Sabroom Police Station, where an FIR was registered the next day under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, and the Foreigners Act, 1946.
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A charge sheet was filed on January 31, 2026. However, since the Passport Act and Foreigners Act had already been repealed by the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, the case was first committed to the Sessions Court.
That court ruled the matter was triable by a magistrate and returned it to the SDJM. A charge under Section 21 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act was then framed, to which the accused pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, eight witnesses, including the complainant, the investigating officer, and GRP and police staff, deposed that the accused was found without any passport, visa or valid travel document and had given differing names and addresses during interrogation.
No independent witness was examined. When examined under Section 351 of the BNSS, the accused admitted she had travelled to India from Nepal with the help of an agent and sought the court’s forgiveness.
Holding that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, the court convicted her under Section 21 and sentenced her to two years’ simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000, with an additional month’s imprisonment in default of payment.
The 289 days she has already spent in custody since her arrest on October 12, 2025, will be set off against the sentence, and she has been informed of her right to appeal.
