An assistant sub-inspector of the Border Security Force (BSF) and his wife have been declared "foreigners" by a Foreigners’ Tribunal in eastern Assam's Jorhat town.
The tribunal declared Muzibur Rahman and his wife as non-Indians in an ex parte or one-sided judgement in July.
The citizenship of the officer's parents and his siblings are, however, not in doubt. The family is based in Golaghat district's Udaypur-Mikirpatty close to the Assam-Nagaland border.
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Mr. Rahman, currently posted in Punjab, came to know of the judgement against him when he came home on leave in July last week.
He said the Assam police's border wing had relied on a 'drunkard's account' to submit a report to the tribunal against him.
The border wing, established in 1962 to initially prevent infiltration of Pakistanis, is tasked with detection and deportation of foreigners. Currently, 100 Foreigners' Tribunals decide the fate of such "foreigners" referred by this wing.
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“We have land documents of 1923. It is a pity that a genuine Indian citizen has been made a foreigner on the basis of a drunkard's feedback. My family did not receive the tribunal’s notice. The chief of our village also did not inform me when I was away on duty,” Mr. Rahman said, adding that he had approached the Gauhati High Court.
In June, the court gave bail to retired soldier Mohammed Sanaullah who, was on May 28, was declared a foreigner by a Foreigners' Tribunal in Guwahati. He had spent more than a week in a detention camp in western Assam's Goalpara.