A petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court in 2024, by Rehana Sultana, a resident of Chanchal, who contested the Gram Panchayat elections in 2022, but lost the election to Lovely Khatun.

“Rehana Sultana, who filed the petition, had contested as a TMC candidate, but had lost to Lovely Khatun who had contested as a candidate from the Congress and Left alliance. After Khatun won the election then within a month or two she joined the TMC,” said Sultana’s counsel Amlan Bhaduri.

Bhaduri while speaking with The Indian Express alleged that Lovely Khatun’s real name is Nasia Sheikh, and she is allegedly a Bangladeshi immigrant who entered India illegally without a passport. He further alleged that in 2015 an Aadhaar card was issued in Khatun’s name and in 2018 a birth certificate was issued, but all with fake documents. “We had gone to the local police station and to the local administration, but no action was taken, thus we moved to Calcutta High Court in 2024,” Bhaduri said.

“Lovely Khatun has forged documents such as her Aadhaar card, voter card and even OBC status to establish her eligibility for elections. We also came to know from locals that Khatun had gone to a neighbouring village and asked a man to impersonate her father. Everyone knows that her father’s name is not Shiekh Mustafa but Jamil Biswas, even in the National Population Register there is no mention of Lovely in Sheikh Mustafa’s family,” Bhaduri told The Express.

The counsel further raised questions on how Khatun was able to contest elections when she’s not an Indian citizen. Meanwhile, Lovely Khatun did not respond to calls by The Express.

This comes at a time when seven people have been arrested for allegedly making passports with forged documents for Bangladesh nationals, who had illegally entered the country.

Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, recently, said, “We have written to the MEA requesting them to strengthen the passport verification system. We have proposed a new system where the district intelligence branch (DIB), local police stations, and senior officers will have a more significant role.In the letter, we have also expressed our concerns about the distribution of passports through post offices. All the agencies must collaborate to address these vulnerabilities. We aim to strengthen the system to prevent misuse.”