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Ex-soldier declared foreigner in Assam, Supreme Court asks officers to ensure fair hearing

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NRC Assam

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Supreme Court today (Thursday, May 30) pulled up the National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator, directing him to ensure fair hearing without cutting short the process of identifying foreigners, a day after a retired soldier from Assam, who had served in the Army for 30 years, was declared a foreigner and sent to detention camp.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi told NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela not to rush through the process in an attempt to meet the deadline of July 31, said media reports.

Yesterday, there were media that Mohammed Sanaullah, who retired as subedar with the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) of Indian Army in August 2017, was detained to be lodged in a detention centre for illegal foreigners in the state as a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) declared him a foreigner.

In his testimony at the FT, Sanaullah said that he had served in insurgency-affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

He was declared a foreigner by FT No 2 Kamrup (Rural) on May 23 this year, reported The Idian Express. His family members and lawyer maintain that Sanaullah’s Indian citizenship can be proved easily with the documents of his ancestors, and of that of his employment with the Indian Army. Sanaullah at present works as a sub-inspector with Assam Police’s border wing — a special wing that deals with detection of illegal migrants in the state.

Sanaullah joins a growing list of defence veterans in Assam, who have had to face humiliation and prosecution after being left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft.

Fifty-one-year-old Sanaullah, a decorated soldier, had participated in several counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and then later in Manipur. He was commissioned as a Junior Commission Officer by the President of India in 2014, said media reports.

Post retirement, he had joined the Assam Border Police as a sub-inspector, the same force that ordered his arrest post the FT’s declaration, reports said.

Also Read: No exemption from US sanctions, India stopped buying oil from Iran from May 2

Lawyer Aman Wadud, whose firm is in the process of filing a writ petition before the Guwahati High Court against the detention, told The Quint that Sanaullah, a resident of the Kolohikas village in Kamrup district, had gone to the Amingaon station on his own volition after he was informed of the FT’s declaration.

He also said that the Border Police had accused him of being a ‘foreigner’ without a proper investigation. “In the verification report filed by the police, they had written that Sanaullah was a labourer.”

Wadud pointed to another peculiarity in the report, where the fact that Sanaullah had not registered in the 1986 voters’ list is stated as a justification of his declaration as a foreigner.

“They claim that since he was 20 years of age in 1986, the fact that he did not register to vote is proof that he is not an Indian citizen. They, however, overlook the fact that the 61st Constitutional Amendment, lowering the minimum voting age from 21 to 18, was passed in March 1989,” he said.

Police says legally bound to detain all ‘foreigners’

Amingaon Additional SP Sanjib Saikia, meanwhile, said that Sanaullah was detained in accordance with the instructions of the court.

Confirming that Sanaullah has been detained, Additional SP of Kamrup, Sanjib Saikia, told The Indian Express, “The FT declared him a foreigner and we are complying with the law.”

“The thing to understand here is that no one is declared a ‘foreigner’ overnight. The FT did so after due diligence and Sanaullah was required to produce documents to prove otherwise. The police detained him as we were legally bound to do so by the court,” Saikia told The Quint.

On being asked about Sanaullah’s whereabouts and the recourse available to him, Saikia said: “Currently, he is being held at the Goalpara detention centre. He can raise the issue with a higher court to get relief.”

Last year, Sanaullah and his family’s name had been ‘put on hold’ in the NRC draft because of the Boko FT case pending against him.

Speaking to News 18, the veteran had said: “I was told that there’s a pending case against me at the Foreigner’s Tribunal in Boko. I tried to trace the case at the office of the superintendent of police (border), Kamrup Rural, the Foreigners’ Tribunal in Ulubari as well as in Boko, and finally found out from the Boko FT that the case cited concerns about somebody named Md Samsul Hoque of Agchiya Village, Boko. I don’t even know who he is. It’s so misleading,” said Sanaullah.

Also Read: Mamata to skip Modi’s oath ceremony as BJP invites kin of those killed in political violence

“This is harassment of indigenous people. No one in my family has made it to the list. It’s all manipulated. After serving the nation for so many years, this is what I get?” Sanaullah added.

The National Register of Citizens or NRC is being updated for the first time since 1951 to account for illegal migration into Assam from neighbouring Bangladesh.

According to the Assam Accord signed in 1985, anyone who entered the state after 1971 is considered an illegal resident. Rights lawyers say most of those who get penalised are people who come from impoverished families and cannot maintain proper records.

The names of at least 40 lakh people are not on the list and lakhs of them have applied for re-verification.

The latest updation of the list in Assam contains the names of descendants of those whose names were in the 1951 list, or those who were in Assam’s Electoral rolls till March 24, 1971. The descendants of those who can prove citizenship till March 24, 1971, will also be considered Indian citizens. So will those who came between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971, and registered themselves with the Foreigners Registration Regional Officer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi says listening to Hanuman Chalisa under Congress rule is a crime

PM Modi was addressing an election rally in Rajasthan’s Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, on a day as India celebrates Hanuman Jayanti.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit out at the Congress and said even listening to Hanuman Chalisa has become a crime under the party’s rule. The Prime Minister also said it was difficult to follow one’s faith under the party and accused it of hatching a deep conspiracy to snatch people’s wealth and distribute it among selected few people in the society. PM Modi was addressing an election rally in Rajasthan’s Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, on a day as India celebrates Hanuman Jayanti.

PM Modi said in a state like Rajasthan where people chant Ram-Ram, Congress banned Ram Navami. He reffered to the redistribution of wealth remarks he had made during a rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara on Sunday and said it has angered the Congress and INDI Alliance so much that they have started throwing abuses at Modi everywhere.

The Prime Minister said that Congress has written in their manifesto that they will survey the wealth. He said the Congress leadership had said in a speech that an X-ray of wealth will be done. He added when Modi exposed the secret then the hidden agenda came out and this has left the people trembling. PM Modi further added that the Congress party has played with the Constitution of the India.

He said when the Constitution was drafted, reservations based on religion were opposed, so that Scheduled Casts (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) could get protection. He said former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had said that Muslims have the first right to the country’s resources.  The prime minister further added Congress’s ideology has always been of appeasement and vote bank politics. He said stones would still be pelted in Jammu and Kashmir, and enemies would still be cutting off the heads of India’s soldiers had Congress been in power.

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NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar says Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to create fear like Russian President Vladimir Putin

Sharad Pawar said that former prime ministers worked to make a new India but PM Modi only criticises others and does not speak about what his government has done for the people of India in the last 10 years.

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NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he fears a new Putin is in the making in India. Pawar alleged PM Modi is trying to create fear and emulating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sharad Pawar said that former prime ministers worked to make a new India but PM Modi only criticises others and does not speak about what his government has done for the people of India in the last 10 years.

Sharad Pawar was addressing a campaign rally in Amravati for a Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate and said former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the nation cannot be questioned. He said some BJP leaders had spoken publicly about changing the Constitution and appealed to the people to stop allowing autocracy from taking shape in India.

Pawar said he had seen Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and had seen the work of almost all Prime Ministers ranging from Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narasimha Rao to Manmohan Singh. The NCP (SP) chief said he had seen that their efforts were to make a new India, but PM Modi knows only how to criticize. He said nobody in history can forget the contribution of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but the PM Modi continuously criticises him.

Sharad Pawar further added that he wanted to apologise to the people of Amravati for the mistake he had committed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by supporting Navneet Rana. He hailed Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray for taking up the responsibility to protect the national interest by working closely with the Congress and the NCP (SP) as they did in the past. Speaking to the media, Pawar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constant attack on the Congress was not a wise decision as that party is not in power.

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Salman Khan house firing case: Mumbai crime branch recovers gun, cartridges from Tapi River in Surat

One gun and some cartridges have been recovered from the Tapi river in Surat by the Mumbai Crime Branch in the firing case outside Salman Khan’s residence, as per reports.

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The Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday, April 22, found a gun and some live cartridges, which was used for firing outside Salman Khan’s house, from Tapi River in Gujarat’s Surat.

This is a fresh update related the gunfire incident outside Salman Khan’s apartment at the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra on April 14. According to the crime branch, they are currently looking for another gun.

It is interesting to note that the accused, after performing the crime, dropped the gun into the Tapi River in Surat.

As to the Mumbai Crime Branch, the shooters who opened fire outside Salman Khan’s residence have two guns and were instructed to shoot 10 rounds of fire.

Outside the actor’s apartment at the Galaxy Apartments in the early hours of April 14, two people arrived on a motorcycle and fired four rounds.The attackers left the location shortly after the event. Both individuals were wearing headgear and carrying backpacks, according to surveillance footage.

The Mumbai Crime Branch has taken the accused Vicky Gupta with them to the Surat Tapi river, where they had thrown the gun. The police can add more sections to this case. More than ten people’s statements have been recorded in the Salman Khan case, and the recording process is still ongoing.

The Mumbai Crime Branch announced on April 20 that three more sections have been added to the FIR against the offenders in an effort to step up the investigation into the shooting incident at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s home.

The case has been appended with the extra sections under IPC 506(2) (threatening), 115 (abetment), and 201 (tampering with evidence). Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol Bishnoi have been named as wanted suspects in connection with the crime, according to Mumbai Crime Branch police.

Shortly after the shooting, Anmol Bishnoi, the younger brother of criminal Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently incarcerated, allegedly claimed responsibility for the incident on Facebook.

Notably, Salman’s security level has been increased to Y-Plus since November 2022 because to threats from gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar. The actor also obtained a new armored vehicles for increased protection and was given permission to carry a handgun on his person.

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