Tarun Gogoi To Address PM on Sanaullah’s Citizenship

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday, speaking on the detention Mohammad Sanaullah, said that he would write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah about the alleged harassment meted upon the former Army officer who has been declared a 'foreigner' and lodged in a detention camp in Goalpara in Assam.

"I will write to the Prime Minister and Home Minister about this. If this continues, will you sit idle and not do anything? The home minister knows that he worked in the Defence force," Gogoi said while interacting with the media in Guwahati.

"It is clear that he is an Indian national. I strongly condemn this declaring as foreigner. If there is torture on a genuine Indian citizen and if his Constitutional rights are violated by anyone, where should we go?" he further added.

Tarun Gogoi also claimed that objections are being levelled against the way Foreigners Tribunals (FT) is functioning, and it is alleged that the officers have become arbitrary and corrupt.

It may be mentioned here that three FIRs have been lodged against retired sub- inspector Chandramal Das who had verified the documents and recorded the statement of Sanaullah.

It may be further mentioned here that three persons whose names appeared as witnesses in the statement filed the complaints but they claimed they were not called during verification and had not signed on any document as witnesses.

Tarun Gogoi further said that the Assam government should move court to give relief to Sanaullah as he was employed with the Assam Border Police at the time of the Foreigners' Tribunal judgment.

"There is no revision petition so far or any bail application. It is Eid tomorrow and instead of celebrating the festival, he is in a detention centre. It cannot be more unfortunate than this. The Assam government can go to the High Court or the Supreme Court," Gogoi said.

"They (government) cannot detect the foreigners, but harass Indians. They had promised to deport all the illegal foreigners, but now want to force Indians to leave. They (BJP) got votes on this issue," Gogoi added.

The former Chief Minister also said that so far 39 persons in Assam have committed suicide after receiving notices from the Foreigners' Tribunal.

"The human rights commission should look into the issue," Gogoi asserted.