Bail to army veteran declared foreigner in Assam

Guwahati High Court granted interim bail to Mohammad Sanaullah, the Kargil War veteran, who was detained on May 29 days after he was declared a foreigner by a foreigner tribunal in Assam, on Friday.

A division bench of the high court, at the sametime, instructed Assam police to collect Sanaullah's biometrics before his release from the detention centre inside Goalpara jail and barred him from leaving his home districts without permission of the police.

The bail was granted with a condition to submit bail bond of Rs 20,000 with two local sureties of the same amount. The court also served notice to the government regarding his petition challenging the tribunal's order.

“We also make it clear that prior to releasing the applicant on bail, biometrics of the iris of both eyes, the fingerprints of both hands and photograph of the petitioner shall be obtained,” the bench of Justice Manojit Bhuyan and justice Prasanta Kumar Deka said in their order.

A foreigner tribunal in Boko in Kamrup district on May 23 had declared him a foreigner saying that there was a mismatch between his affidavit and the documents in support of his age and parental linkage.

Sanaullah’s family challenged the tribunal’s order in the high court saying he has haphazardly declared a foreigner without proper investigation by police. The role of police came in for sharp criticism after investigating officer of the case said the Sahaullah he questioned was not the army veteran but a different person with the same name. This triggered the debate that he became a victim of mistaken identity.

Senior counsel Indira Jaisingh appeared in the high court on behalf of Sanaullah.

Even three persons, whom police claimed to be witnesses against Sanaullah, filed a case against the investigating officer saying they never complained against the veteran army person and police had falsely shown them as witnesses in the tribunal.

Assam at present has 100 foreigner tribunals, the quasi-judicial bodies set up under the Foreigners Act to dispose the cases related to Bangladeshis, who had illegally migrated to Assam after March 24, 1971.

The cut-off was decided in the Assam Accord of 1985, following the six-year-long anti-foreigner movement in Assam.

Sanaullah retired from army in 2017 as a subedar and last year joined as a sub-inspector in the border branch of Assam police, that deals with foreigner cases.

Assam police, however, discharged him from his job last week following the tribunal’s order.