Manipur student arrested on sedition charge

Manipur police on Saturday said Veewon Thokchom, a student leader was arrested from his rented house in New Delhi on Friday evening on sedition charges for spreading “provocative messages” regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 but the NDA did not place it in the Rajya Sabha on February 12 to avoid impending defeat in vote.

A police official in Imphal said Thokchom had allegedly forwarded messages through WhatsApp that the bill would definitely be passed and incited people saying “now self-determination was way forward.” “Already there was apprehension among people regarding the bill and we tried hard to control the situation but he was spreading messages to incite people,” said the police official.

The North East Students’ Organisation on Saturday condemned the arrest and demanded his immediate release.

Verification process begins

Verification of documents submitted by nearly 36.2-lakh applicants, who found their names dropped from the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, began on Saturday.

The verification process will continue in 1, 436 centres across the state till February 28.

The NRC is being updated only in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date to segregate Indian citizens and the suspected illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. This means those failing to submit documents to prove that they or their forefathers lived in Assam on or before March 24, 1971 would not be included in the updated NRC. They would subsequently be disfranchised and declared foreigners for deportation, as per the Assam Accord of 1985.

A little over 40.07 lakh applicants of the total 3.29 lakh people, who first submitted their applicants for inclusion in the updated NRC, found their names dropped in the draft NRC published on July 30 last year.

The dropouts were, however, allowed to submit their claims again to include their names in the final NRC. The Supreme Court on February 5 asked the Centre that the deadline for publishing the final NRC should not be dragged beyond July 31.

Officials said hearing for nearly 2 lakh objections filed against the inclusion of suspected illegal migrants in the draft NRC, would also continue till February 28.