Will write to PM Narendra Modi on Mohammad Sanaullah, says Tarun Gogoi

GUWAHATI: Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday questioned the Centre and the state government for not seeking any legal review of the order of a Foreigner's Tribunal, which has declared a former Army personnel and a serving Assam Police officer, Mohammad Sanaullah, an illegal foreigner.
"I am going to write to the Prime Minster, home minister and the defence minister and ask them why they cannot interfere and stand as a spectator when a former soldier has been sent to wrongful confinement," Gogoi said.
Sanaullah, the retired Army personnel, was sent to a detention centre for illegal foreigners after being declared as an illegal foreigner on May 23. His family members say that Sanaullah is an Indian citizen and there are documents to prove it. After retiring from the Army, Sanaullah joined the Assam Police's border wing as a sub-inspector.
On Saturday, retired police sub-inspector (border) Chandramal Das, who was earlier engaged in recording statements of 'doubtful' citizens, claimed that the former Army officer was not the Md Sanaullah he had examined on May 23, 2008. "The person whose statement I recorded was a daily wager. His name was also Md Sanaullah. He was illiterate and this why his thumb impression is there on the statement. The person who has been sent to the detention camp is not the one whose statement I had recorded. A person who served in the Army would not be illiterate and also wouldn't give a thump impression," Das told TOI.
Challenging Das's statement, Aman Wadud, the retired Army officer's advocate, said, "It cannot be a case of mistaken identity. It was, rather, a deliberate attempt to harass people in the name of detecting foreigners." He added, "The inquiry officer in this case never met Md Sanaullah. The truth is there is no other person by the name of Sanaullah, son of Mohammed Ali, in that village (Kalahikash). This is a case of deliberate and malafide targeting of people in the guise of detecting foreigners. It is not an isolated case, it has become a regular affair now. Border Police randomly accuse people of being foreigners without conducting any investigation."
Wadud has chalenged the tribunal's decision in the Gauhati high court.
The address of Md Sanaullah, whose statement was recorded by the Border Police in 2008, is uncannily same as that of the retired Army officer. The address that was mentioned in the statement was Kalahikash at Boko in Kamrup district, which is also the address of the retired Army officer.
Senior advocate Hafiz Rashid Choudhury said hundreds of people suffered after being tagged as 'doubtful' voters and 'foreigners' because of improper and lackadaisical investigation by the Border Police. "Many of the victims are poor. People are made to suffer because of poor inquiry on the field," added Choudhury.