Bangladeshi woman leaves for home

VISAKHAPATNAM: Rahima Akhtar, a 32-year-old woman from Bangladesh who had been wandering as a mentally-challenged patient near Sri City in 2019, was finally discharged from Government Hospital for Mental Care, Visakhapatnam, on Saturday. She boarded a train to Kolkata on her way to her native home in the Comilla district of Bangladesh, accompanied by two police officers and a volunteer.

Rahima was reportedly found near Sri City and taken to the high-tech police station in Satyavedu on July 24, 2019, following complaints of wandering behaviour, irritability and poor self-care.

On the directions of Satyavedu first class magistrate, she was admitted to
Government Hospital for Mental Care on July 25, 2019. After three weeks of treatment, she gave details of her parents and other family members with house address and phone numbers.

But the procedure of her repatriation to her native home took three years. On
February 18, 2023, the executive member of Vasvaya Mahila Mandali Madhavi
Ganapathi took the initiative and discussed the issue with the GHMC superintendent and offered to help the officials in taking her to her home
country.

On July 1, this year, a minister from Bangladesh Salim Mohammed Jahangir and a consular assistant from the office of deputy high commission Bangladesh, visited the hospital in Visakhapatnam and discussed her travel with the
superintendent.

“Hospital staff treated me very well and will call all of them after reaching home,’’
Rahima told Deccan Chronicle.