An NHS doctor who was held captive by her family in Bangladesh for four months while they plotted a forced marriage is expected to return to Britain in the next few days after a court ruling in Dhaka.

Humayra Abedin, 33, who is training to become a GP at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, was allegedly beaten, drugged and held against her will after being duped into flying to Bangladesh on August 3 when family members claimed that her mother was seriously ill.

Dr Abedin has a Hindu boyfriend in London, which angered her Muslim family, according to reports. They were preparing to marry her to a Muslim stranger, it is claimed. A friend of Dr Abedin, who had lived with her in East Ham, sounded the alarm after receiving a text on August 11. “Please help me. My life is in danger. They have locked me in house. My job is at stake. They are making my life hell,” the message said.

Yesterday, Judge Syed Mahmod Hossain ordered Dr Abedin’s parents to return her passport, driver’s licence and credit card. “It perplexes me as to why the parents kept her confined and interfered with her personal life. I am shocked,” he said. Dr Abedin told Sky News last night: “I’m relieved that I’m free, I’m happy. I just want to say thank you to all those who supported and helped me. I’m fine and I’m feeling happy. I don’t have any bad feelings towards them. They are my parents so I don’t have any bad feelings.”

Dr Abedin’s father cried out on hearing the verdict and had to be assisted as he left the courtroom. He said that he and his wife had done nothing wrong. “She has not been held captive. These allegations are all false,” he said.

Dr Abedin’s lawyer, Sara Hossain, said: “Our courts have shown that we can guarantee the liberty of our citizens. This is quite a precedent.”

The doctor’s boyfriend, a 44-year-old Bangladeshi software engineer, had alleged that Dr Abedin’s Muslim parents had bound and gagged her, held her captive in a house in Dhaka, and pleaded with her to marry a Muslim. He said that death threats had been issued against his family in Bangladesh. “They told her they’d prefer her to die than return to London,” he said.

A Metropolitan Police investigation began in June after allegations that the doctor’s mother and uncle tried to hold her captive in London. Last week, the High Court issued an injunction under the new Forced Marriage Act, demanding that Dr Abedin be allowed to return to Britain. Though the Act is not enforceable in Bangladesh it was hoped that it would place pressure on the Bangladeshi authorities.

Dr Abedin trained in Bangladesh before coming to Britain in 2002, when she studied for a master’s degree in public health at Leeds University. She was to start in a GP surgery in August.

In the first nine months of this year, the Government’s Forced Marriage Unit was contacted by 1,308 callers sounding the alert over suspected cases.

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