65-YO Assam Man Declared Foreigner Dies In Detention, Family Refuses To Accept His Body

A 64-year-old man in Assam, who was declared a foreigner by a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT), died while in detention.

According to reports, Dulal Chandra Paul's identity did not appear in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and his relatives have refused to accept his body. He died at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital on Sunday.

Source

His family claimed he was mentally unstable when he was arrested by the police on October 11, 2017, and sent to Tezpur detention camp, reportsThe New Indian Express.

“He was mentally unstable… His siblings and their families are in the NRC. Our family has land documents dating back to the 1960s. A mentally-unstable person was put into detention,” Sadhan Paul, a nephew of Dulal told the daily.

According to an NDTV report, the family members of Paul said as the state declared him a foreigner, the body should be handed over to Bangladesh. They refused to accept his body until the government, in a statement, declares that Paul was an Indian citizen.

Picture For Representation/Facebook

The National Register of Citizens, an updated list of Indian citizens in Assam released on August 31, excluded 19 lakh people.

Reports state, the state government sent a delegation to the relatives to convince them to accept his mortal remains.

Assam has six detention centres and the seventh one is under construction in Goalpara. The detention centres are located in district jails and house around 1,000 people.