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Md Sanaullah submitted contradictory papers

By R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, June 2 - Amidst controversy over declaration of a former Army man Md Sanaullah as a foreign national by Foreigners' Tribunal, official sources said that the person submitted multiple certificates and documents in the Tribunal, which did not corroborate. Md Sanaullah joined the Army on May 21, 1987 and retired on May 31, 2017. He joined the Border wing of the Assam Police on November 1, 2018 but after he was declared as a foreigner by the Tribunal, he was detained in Goalpara detention centre and discharged from service on May 23 this year.

The declaration of the ex Army man as a foreign national created controversy all over the country and it is also reported that the case was originally registered against another person bearing the same name. However, official sources pointed out that if the case was not registered against him, the ex Army man should have refused to accept the notice from the Tribunal. Moreover, he contested the case and submitted various documents and engaged lawyers to fight the case. Even if it was a case of mistaken identity and the case was originally not registered against the ex Army man, the fact remains that he could not prove before the Tribunal that he is a genuine Indian citizen, sources added.

Giving details of the discrepancies found by the Tribunal in the documents submitted by Sanaullah, sources said that his name was mentioned as Marjyo Ullah, aged 25 years, in the voters list of 1989 but as per the documents provided by him, his age should have been 22 years. The Tribunal found out that after the death of his father, mutation of land was done in the name of three brothers in 1977. The Tribunal raised question over the fact that at that time, the age of Sanaullah should have been only 10 years and as per law a minor can not get mutation. His mother Bhanu Bibi has shown to have cast her vote in 1970, 1977 and 1989 and there were discrepancies in her age in different voters lists. Sanaullah could not clarify before the Tribunal why the name of his other family members were not included in the voters lists of 2005 and 2010.

Sources said that as per the documents produced, the youngest sister of Sanaullah was born after the expiry of his father and the name of his spouse was different in different documents and because of all those discrepancies, the Tribunal declared the person as a foreigner. Sources said that as there have been instances of persons declared as foreigners vanishing immediately after the Tribunal verdict, police took Sanaullah into custody immediately.

Official sources also said that though the case was initiated against him way back in 2008, Sanaullah apparently did not inform the Army authorities about the matter and the Assam Police also did not receive any query from the Army in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Government is also probing into the matter after the issue was raised in the media.

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