A Nepali woman from Those-2 in Ramechhap district has been languishing in an Indian jail for the past eight months.

Thirty-three-year-old Makhhumaya Lama was detained by Indian police when she was about to board a flight to Dubai from Bangalore airport after finding some fault in the travel documents she was carrying.

Makhhumaya has requested one of her friends in the prison to inform her husband in Ramechhap about her situation.  

Mamata Singh, who was earlier arrested at Delhi airport on charge of possessing both Nepali citizenship certificate and Indian voter ID card, informed that Makhhumaya has been in a Bangalore jail for the past eight months.

Mamata, who was arrested two months ago, was released on bail after spending 27 days in the same prison.

“I managed to post the bail and walked out of the jail; there was no one to help me,” said Mamata. Mamata added that the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi hardly pays attention to the plight of Nepalis languishing in Indian prisons.

“Makhhumaya does not have anyone in India to post bail for her. Her family in Ramechhap is oblivious to her situation,” said Mamata.

Though a consular office has been set up at the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi, it

does not have the data of number of Nepalis in Indian prisons.

Mamata could not say in detail how Makhhumaya landed in the prison.

However, reports have been rife of late that human traffickers are involved in trafficking Nepali girls and women to some Gulf countries via Indian airports.

Since Makhhumaya’s detention was based on “improper documents”, it is suspected that she could be a victim of human traffickers.