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NRC final list: Pratik Hajela booked for ‘discrepancies’
Guwahati: The Assam police on Thursday said it has registered two cases against National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator Prateek Hajela and other unidentified
Guwahati: The Assam police on Thursday said it has registered two cases against National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator Prateek Hajela and other unidentified officials for alleged “discrepancies” in the final NRC list published on August 31.
Nearly two million people have been left off the list as part of an exercise to check illegal immigration.
The police said a businessman and indigenous Muslim students organisation -- All Assam Goriya-Moriya Yuva Chatra Parishad (AAGMYCP) -- filed separate FIRs against Hajela in Dibrugarh and Guwahati.
Guwahati police commissioner Deepak Kumar said, “We have registered a case on Thursday under sections 167, 506 and 34 of the IPC after a complaint from an organisation.”
While section 167 pertains to a public servant framing an incorrect document, section 34 relates to several persons furthering the intent and section 506 to criminal intimidation.
In its complaint, the indigenous organisation alleged that “even when people had correct documents NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela intentionally excluded the names of Goriya, Moriya and many indigenous sons of the soil.” The complaint names Hajela and unknown NRC officials.
In Dibrugarh, the police registered a case against Hajela and other NRC officials on the complaint of businessman Chandan Mazumdar, who was upset over his exclusion even as his mother made it to the list.
In his complaint to the police, Mazumder said their names have been excluded intentionally “with a criminal conspiracy by Shri Prateek Hajela, IAS, State Coordinator NRC and NSK team disobeying the law with intent to cause injury by framing an incorrect document”.
Mazumder, 51, said his family settled in Dibrugarh in 1947. “My mother’s name is on the list but my family, including me, my wife and my son are out,” he said. Like his mother, Mazumder’s younger brother, Piku, made it to the list, while his other brother, Chanchal, has not. “We all sought inclusion through our mother’s document,” Mazumdar said.
“We have registered a case on Tuesday after a complaint against Prateek Hajela and NRC Seva Kendra officials. We will investigate the allegations,” said a police officer in Dibrugarh district, adding that case has been registered under section 166, 167 and 120 (B) of the IPC. Section 120 (B) pertains to criminal conspiracy.
Responding to the FIRs, an NRC official said, “The inclusion or exclusion of names was the prerogative of the local officers who scrutinised the documents.”
Assam Chief Secretary Alok Kumar refused to comment on registration of the case against 1995 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre. Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi of the Congress had appointed Hajela as NRC state coordinator for updating the citizenship rolls in 2013 on the direction of the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, NGO Assam Public Works (APW) lodged an FIR at Guwahati against Hajela and two persons, declared as foreigners in 2016 and included in the NRC list.
Dhrubajyoti Talukdar, general secretary of APW on whose petition the NRC started six years ago, asked for a police investigation into how their names were included in the final NRC.
