‘Foreigner’ NRC staff arrested

Guwahati (Assam), Aug 16, 2018:

The police finally managed to nab Khairul Islam, who went absconding last month following his conviction by Gauhati High Court as a foreigner. Islam was arrested from Moirabari in Morigaon district on Wednesday night.

According to Morigaon Superintendent of Police Swapnaneel Deka, Islam will be forwarded to Tezpur detention camp. He said the police have also intensified efforts to nab Islam’s mother, sister and two brothers, all of whom are also missing.

What makes his case interesting was the fact that he was involved in update process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) by the district administration without checking his antecedents.

Islam, who was serving as a teacher at a government school, was declared foreigner by a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) in February 2015. Thereafter, he appealed to the Gauhati High Court in September 2016 against the FT verdict.

But even when such a serious case was pending against him, the Morigaon district administration appointed him at an NRC Seva Kendra without verifying his credentials in December 2017.

Meanwhile, the high court upheld the tribunal’s verdict and declared him a foreigner in June this year. He was pronounced a foreigner by a bench comprising Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Nelson Sailo.

Now, having been caught unaware, the administration swung into action and removed him from the NRC update process on 1st August.

However, even before the authorities could actually initiate any action against him, Islam went missing along with his mother, sister and two brothers.

A senior security official, while admitting a “lapse” on the part of authorities concerned, however, told InsideNE that the entire system was to be blamed. He explained that the “lapse” occurred when he was appointed a teacher in 1996 without verifying his antecedents.

Now, the question that is bound to be raised by many is how come the authorities took more than a month to remove Islam from the NRC update process – from the date he was declared a foreigner by the high court till his removal.

Further, why was he inducted into the NSK when a serious case was pending against him?