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Case filed against Assam NRC coordinator


Published : 05 Sep 2019 10:10 PM | Updated : 03 Sep 2020 10:47 AM

Two FIRs have been lodged against the Coordinator of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Prateek Hajela, for ‘discrepancies’ in the final updated list, police said Thursday. The final NRC published on August 31 left out 19.6 lakh people.  

A third complaint was filed by an NGO on Thursday  against three persons who were declared as foreigners but whose names figure in the final NRC and against the NRC authorities of Morigaon district who were allegedly responsible for including their names. A lawyer and indigenous Muslim students organisation -- All Assam Goriya-Moriya Yuva Chatra Parishad (AAGMYCP) -- filed separate FIRs against Hajela in Dibrugarh and Guwahati, police said.

Chandan Mazumdar, whose name does not figure in the final NRC list, filed the complaint against Hajela at Dibrugarh police station on Wednesday, police said. Mazumdar alleged he had submitted all documents but his name was not included in the updated final NRC due to "inefficiency and criminal conspiracy of employees". The FIR held Hajela responsible for "discrepancies" as he was tasked with supervising the NRC updating exercise in Assam.

Another complaint was lodged against Hajela at Guwahati's Latasil police station on Tuesday by the AAGMYCP, claiming "deliberate" anomalies in the final list. NGO Assam Public Works (APW) today lodged a FIR at Guwahati's Geetanagar police station against the trio, who were declared as foreigners under Section 2(a) of the Foreigners' Act, 1946 by the Morigaon Foreigners' Tribunal in 2016.

The NGO was the original petitioner in the Supreme Court which led to the updation of the NRC six years ago. APW general secretary Dhrubajyoti Talukdar called for a police investigation into how their names were included in the final NRC. The police, however, are  yet to register a case based on this FIR. Hajela was not available for comments as he has been barred by the Supreme Court from speaking to the media.