GUWAHATI: Four officials in Assam landed up in jail after they were arrested for collecting money from the applicants of National Register of Citizens (NRC) during the process of re-verification of documents.
NRC authorities said the persons arrested were not NRC officials but vendors provided by the state government to carry out works of biometrics enrolment.
The incident was reported from Kothakuthigaon near Dhupdhara town in Lower Assam’s Goalpara district. A local court on Thursday sent the quartet to 14 days judicial custody.
The police said the accused persons were arrested following receipt of a complaint from one Nagar Ali of Boko in Kamrup district that they had demanded Rs.80 from him for carrying out his biometrics verification. It is a part of the NRC verifications process.
In his complaint, Ali had alleged that an official, Barasha Das, had demanded the money from him. He said when he refused to pay, Das and three others had picked up a quarrel with him. When other applicants visiting the NRC centre learnt about the reason behind the quarrel, they had gone after the officials. The situation was later brought under control by the police. Subsequently, the four people were arrested.
“During the course of an investigation, we found that Das was collecting Rs.80 from each of the people who had come for the verification,” the police said.
Ali might have resisted the attempt of extortion but several others were forced to pay the amount. NRC authorities made it clear that the verification works were free of cost.
This is not the first such incident. In June, two officials were arrested from an NRC service centre in Guwahati for allegedly accepting bribes to get the name of a man included in the NRC.