The Bharatiya Gana Parishad has taken up afresh the case of a woman who has been in a detention centre for foreigners in Assam since 2016, allegedly because the Border Police made an error with similar-sounding names, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.

“We have taken up the case afresh after changing the lawyer who did nothing to save Madhubala,” Ajoy Roy, Bharatiya Gana Parishad working president, told The Hindu. “Besides, her husband is not alive and their hearing and speech-impaired daughter did not have the resources to pursue the case.”

Roy said the party had decided to take up the “case of the mix-up victim” after the detention of ex-serviceman Mohammed Sanaullah triggered an outcry. Fifty-two-year-old Mohammed Sanaullah, who retired as subedar with the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers of Indian Army in August 2017, was arrested by the Assam Border Police in Guwahati on May 28. Sanaullah’s family has moved the Gauhati High Court.

Madhubala Mandal was arrested in place of Madhumala Das on charges of being a foreigner. The Foreigners’ Tribunal had issued a notice to Das on March 5, 2016 after the border police raised doubts about her citizenship. Das was asked to appear before the tribunal on April 4, 2016, but the police arrested Mandal a few days later.

Residents of Mandal’s home district of Chirang said that she has suffered due to the police’s error. Mandal’s sister-in-law said she knew Das and was certain that the police had made a blunder. “She [Das] and her husband died long ago,” said Bhasani Mandal. “Their son, Mantu, too died after being trampled by an elephant.”

The police, however, have denied the allegations and said no mistake was made. “Everything was verified when she was caught,” Chirang Superintendent of Police Sudhakar Singh told The Hindu. “She was married to one Das when the case was initiated, but married another man when her husband died. The change in surname does not make them two different persons.”

However, Bhasani Mandal said Madhubala married just once. “It is a clear case of goof-up,” she told The New Indian Express. “As we are poor, we haven’t been able to arrange a lawyer to fight our case in the court.”