GUWAHATI: An Assam court has summoned former state coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Prateek Hajela to appear before it on November 17.
The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge No. 1 of Kamrup Metropolitan district issued the order of summons based on a criminal revision petition filed by Luit Kumar Barman, who is an Assamese filmmaker and businessman.
“Take note that the applicant has filed a criminal revision under Section 397 CrPC. You are hereby asked to appear before this court on 17th November 2023 at 10.30 am to file objections, if any,” the court said in its order issued recently.
The order further stated that if the persons failed to appear before the court, the case would be heard ex parte by law.
Barman had filed the petition based on a report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India on the NRC. He alleged that Hajela misused Rs 155 crore during the updation of the NRC.
Over 19.06 lakh of Assam’s 3.3 crore applicants were left out of the NRC complete list which was published in August 2019.
Hajela is a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre who received approval for VRS from the Assam government in August.
The Supreme Court, which directly monitored the updation of the NRC, transferred him to his home state Madhya Pradesh in 2019 considering the threat to his life surrounding the NRC.
There are two other cases pending against him in Assam. One was filed by his successor in the NRC office Hitesh Dev Sarma.
Dev Sarma alleged that Hajela had helped illegal Bangladeshi migrants get their names included in the NRC. An organisation, called Assam Public Works, had also filed an FIR accusing him of manipulating the NRC updation process.