Bihar-origin woman in Assam declared foreigner

A 40-year-old woman born and brought up in Assam, whose forefathers had shifted from Bihar during the British rule was recently declared a foreigner by a tribunal and sent to a detention camp inside a jail.

According to Ramesh Gupta, elder brother of the victim, Amila Shah, who was married to Ram Dulal Shah, a trader in Dholabeel village in central Assam’s Sonitpur district in 1993, was issued a foreigner notice from Tezpur foreigner tribunal on June 4, 2018. She was asked to submit documents to prove her linkage with her father late Keshab Prasad Gupta, who was born in Nalanda in Bihar but shifted to Pratapgarh tea estate in Assam in 1948. on June 15 this year, she was called to the tribunal and was subsequently arrested.

“During the hearings, we submitted the NRC of 1951 containing our father’s name. We had also submitted Amila’s PAN card, voters ID card and proof of her birth in Pratapgarh Tea Estate, as a linkage document. But to the utter surprise of us all, the court informed us that she was declared a foreigner. How can a person be declared a foreigner whose forefathers lived in Bihar? We are not Bangladeshis,” asked Ramesh, while talking to DH over the phone from Pratapgarh, on Monday.

“We will challenge the tribunal’s order in Gauhati High court once we get a certified copy of the order,” he said. Sources said she was declared a foreigner as the tribunal found a mismatch of her name in the linkage documents. A woman, against whom a case is pending in a tribunal, is supposed to prove linkage with her father and documents to prove that her father lived in Assam before March 24, 1971, the cut-off-date decided to detect foreigners in Assam, to prove her citizenship.

Interestingly, names of her two other brothers who lives in Assam, her husband and four children figured in the NRC, which is being updated with the same cut-off-date, to detect foreigners. Amila’s name did not figure in the draft NRC released last year and submitted her claim for inclusion in the final NRC.

Assam at present has 100 such tribunals, the quasi-judicial bodies set up under the Citizenship Act, 1946 to dispose of the cases related to suspected illegal migrants. Over four lakh cases of suspected illegal migrants are pending in such tribunals at present.

The border branch of Assam police register a case, based on suspicion or a complaint and forward the case to a tribunal after the person fails to submit documents to prove Indian citizenship.

The incident could shock many Bihar-origin people, whose forefathers had shifted to Assam and made the state their homes.

The incident comes days after Mohammad Sanaullah, former Army personnel has similarly declared a foreigner and sent to a detention camp. He was, however, released on interim bail granted by Gauhati High Court.