MHA grants citizenship to wife of Kolkata resident killed in Pahalgam terror attack

Indian citizenship granted to Soheni Roy, wife of Pahalgam terror attack victim Bitan Adhikari, by Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has granted Indian citizenship to Soheni Roy, the wife of Bitan Adhikari, a resident of Kolkata who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.

After the death of her husband, questions were raised about the nationality of Ms. Soheni by a section of family members of Bitan Adhikari.

Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar shared the Certificate of Registration of Soheni Roy on social media under the Citizenship Act, 1955. The document mentions that Soheni was born in Narayanganj Bangladesh and entered the country in January 1997.

Mr. Majumdar said that Soheni had applied for Indian citizenship after her marriage to Bitan Adhikari a long time ago. “The Indian government has accepted that application of citizenship. I thank the Indian government, Bitan babu was brutally killed at Pahalgam. The Union government has given a fresh leash of life to Soheni by granting citizenship ,” the BJP leader said.

Bitan Adhikari, an IT employee who was working in Florida, USA was killed in Pahalgam in front of his wife on April 22. The family members of Bitan Adhikari including his elderly parents reside at Patuli in Kolkata. The West Bengal government has announced compensation for the family and distributed the compensation sum between the parents and the wife of the deceased. Several politicians both from the ruling party and Opposition has visited the Adhikari family after the tragedy and assured support.

Of the 26 persons who were killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, three persons were from West Bengal. The other two deceased were Sameer Guha, a resident of Behala in the city and Manish Ranjan from Jhalda in State’s Purulia district.