Woman falsely accused of being ‘foreigner’ released

Anna Bala Ray, an inhabitant of Pub Ankorbari in Chirang district of Assam, was released on Thursday after being declared a foreigner following which she was sent to a detention camp in Kokrajhar on June 23.

A foreigner's tribunal had ordered the release of Anna Bala Ray after her husband submitted some documents proving her citizenship. The tribunal also ordered Ray to appear before it on July 13 with all the documents which back her citizenship claim.

Anna Bala Ray was declared a foreigner on January 2 by the tribunal after she failed to appear before it with documents for five consecutive times. She was served a notice in Oct 2017 which went ignored and eventually she was arrested on June 23,

The All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union was involved in the case and they had protested her detention, demanding her immediate release. General Secretary of the Union Gokul Barman called the arrest a conspiracy to frame the indigenous population as dubious voters.

Barman further urged the government to cease the harassment of the indigenous populace by falsely classifying them as foreigners.