E-Paper
83-yr-old declared Indian 10 yrs after son died by suicide over citizenship case
Akol Rani Namasudra, 83, submitted documents validating her Indian citizenship before a foreigners tribunal court in Assam.
SILCHAR: An 83-year-old woman from Assam’s Cachar district whose citizenship was questioned 22 years back, has been declared an Indian citizen by a foreigner’s tribunal on Wednesday after she was able to provide documents validating her citizenship.
The woman, Akol Rani Namasudra’s son Arjun Namasudra died by suicide in 2012 after getting a notice from foreigner’s tribunal, while her daughter Anjali Roy won a similar case in 2013.
“Akol Rani Namasudhra of Haritikor Part-I village under Katigorah police station of Cachar (Assam) has successfully proved her case by adducing cogent, reliable and admissible evidence. She has clearly been able to establish the fact of presence of herself on Indian soil as well as in the State of Assam, relatable to a period prior to 01.01.1966 in accordance with law. Hence, I am of the considered opinion Akol Rani Namasudhra is a citizen of India and she is not a foreigner,” said the order issued by foreigner’s tribunal-4 (FT-4) member Dharmedra Deb on Wednesday.
As per the records of FT-4, a case was registered against Akol Rani Namasudra in FT-2 of Silchar in on 29/02/2000 under Illegal Migrant Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) 1983. IMDT was repealed in 2005 and a fresh case was registered against Akol Rani Namasudra in 2011 under FT-4. However, none of the FTs issued notice against Akol Rani till February 23, 2022, as per officials of FT-4.
On February 23 this year, the Foreigner’s tribunal-4 of Silchar issued a notice against Akol Rani Namasudra and asked her to prove her identity. FT had claimed that Akol Rani could not show adequate documents during police verification, hence her Indian citizenship was under doubt.
According to the lawyers, Akol Rani Namasudra’s name appeared in voters’ list of 1965, 1970 and all the subsequent years when elections took place in Assam. With names in voters’ list and other important documents, Akol Rani Namasudra was able to prove her citizenship within three months of getting the notice.
In Assam, a person has to have documents showing they or their ancestors were residents of the state prior to March 1971 to be able to prove that they are Indian citizens--a criteria which was fixed as per the Assam Accord of 1985 and was used for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the state in August, 2019.
On February 23, 2014, then BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally in Assam’s Cachar district, had spoken about Akol Rani Namasudra’s son Arjun Namasudra while expressing concern about the persons suffering due to tribunal notices.
Modi said, “Arjun didn’t die for himself but for the rights of lakhs of people in detention camps. Arjun Namasudra has sacrificed his life for them.”
After Modi’s speech many leaders from the BJP and other parties assured that Arjun’s family would be safe now. Arjun was declared ‘Indian’ by the tribunal court after his death. But, a decade after Arjun’s death, Akol Rani faced a similar phase of trauma.
After getting the notice, she told HT, “I can’t call myself ‘pagol’ (mentally unstable) but I am no less than that. My son killed himself in front of my eyes because of a wrong allegation. My entire family is disturbed. I don’t know why we have to prove again and again that we are Indians.”
Akol Rani’s lawyer advocate Anil Chandra Dey questioned the police and entire system of FTs for sending notice to original Indians without proper verification.
“Akol Rani Namasudra is Indian by birth. She has enough documents to prove that. Her daughter proved her citizenship using these documents. Still Akol’s identity was questioned. I want to ask the FTs; how many people of the same family should win cases to prove they are Indians?” Dey said.
Along with Akol Rani and her kids, Arjun’s mother-in-law Sabitri Biswas also received a notice from the foreigner’s tribunal in 2017. The family has been fighting the case till date.
According to local residents, in 1956, the government of India allotted land to 173 migrated families from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in Katigorah area. But many of their descendants have received D-voter (doubtful voter) notices in recent years and many of them have also failed to register their names in the final draft of the NRC. Akol Rani Namasudra also failed to register her name in any of the NRC drafts.
