GUWAHATI: A woman in Assam has been sent to a detention camp for illegal immigrants by the Foreigners’ Tribunal as she allegedly ignored three notices issued by the body which sought her appearance.
The woman, Dolly Roy (45), hails from Golaghat. Dolly’s family members claimed that they did not receive the notices. The family pinned the blame on their legal counsel, Debabrata Paul, for not informing them of the notices sent in February, March and April. However, Paul said such notices are sent to families and not advocates.
The incident comes just days after Kargil War veteran Md Sanaullah was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court after he had been declared a “foreigner” by the Foreigners’ Tribunal and sent to a detention camp in Lower Assam’s Goalpara.
Dolly’s family claimed she was born in Lower Assam’s Barpeta district and she possessed several documents to prove her Indian citizenship. The case dates back to 2010 when she was categorised as a “D” or “doubtful” voter by authorities.
“We have been fighting the case since 2010 when she was suspected as a doubtful voter. Those days, she used to depose before the Foreigners’ Tribunal in Golaghat but the magistrate would never be there. The same thing went on when the case was later transferred to the Foreigners’ Tribunal of Jorhat,” Dolly’s son Sagarjit said.
He said the suspicion of the authorities on her mother’s citizenship heightened once the process to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) began. “We submitted several documents, such as a copy of the 1951 NRC, containing the name of our maternal grandfather Mantu Charan Saha. His name figured on the voters’ lists of 1966 as well as 1971. The Tribunal was still not satisfied and it asked for one more document but we had nothing else to submit,” Sagarjit said.