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Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas
Cameraperson: Biswa Kalyan Purkaysthya
Chandradhar Das, 104, a resident Amraghat area under Dholai constituency in Cachar district of Assam, was declared a foreigner in January 2018.
It was an ex parte judgment by the Foreigners Tribunal after he missed the notices of the tribunal and didn’t appear for the hearing.
The then 102-year-old Chandradhar Das was taken to the detention camp in Silchar Central Jail in May 2018. As his health condition started deteriorating, he was given bail after three months on humanitarian grounds.
After the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was passed in Parliament in December 2019, the family was hopeful that Chandradhar Das would finally get his Indian citizenship.
Whatever may happen, there’s no way that 70-year-old Sulekha Das can miss visiting the Udarbond police station every Wednesday. If she does, she can be immediately sent back to a detention camp. That was the pre-condition when she was released from the detention camp in Silchar in May 2020.
Sulekha Das and her husband's names are in 1965 voters’ list. Yet she was declared a D-voter, she didn’t even make it to the draft NRC.
In May 2018, Sulekha Das was summoned to the Udarbond police station on the pretext of NRC verification. But the police took her to the detention camp in Silchar Central Jail. Her family was informed that she had missed three notices issued by the Foreigners Tribunal. She was declared a foreigner in an ex parte judgment.
Sixty-year-old Bhakta Das earns his living by plying his rickshaw on Silchar’s Ashram road. In 2009, he was served a D-voter notice by the Foreigners Tribunal, in effect making him a doubtful citizen of India.
In spite of being declared an Indian in 2011, six years later he got another notice from the Foreigners Tribunal – he had to prove yet again that he was not a D-voter. This time his wife Sumita Das was also served a D-voter notice. She, too, is facing a trial at Foreigners Tribunal Court-IV in Silchar.
They have the option to approach the Gauhati High Court to challenge the Tribunal notice. But Bhakta Das’ financial condition is such that he can’t afford to hire a lawyer and approach the court.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act hasn’t been implemented since the rules are yet to be framed and notified.
Though there are no official figures, it’s estimated that almost 5.56 lakh Hindus are out of the Assam NRC, many of them Bengali Hindus. A lot of them are dependent on the CAA for their Indian citizenship.
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