Assam: Family members refuse to accept body of 65-year-old man declared as illegal foreigner

Guwahati: The family members of a 65-year-old dead man, who was declared as an illegal foreigner and lodged in a detention centre, have denied to accept his body.

65-year-old Dulal Paul, who lodged in a detention camp in Assam was died at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital on Oct 12 after he was admitted at the government run hospital due to his deteriorated health condition.

Dulal Paul, a resident of Alisinga village under Dhekiajuli police station in Sonitpur district, was in the detention centre at Tezpur since Oct 11, 2017.

Following his deteriorate health condition, he was admitted at Guwahati Medical College Hospital on Sept 28 last.

But, the family members of Dulal Paul have refused to accept his body and said, How can they accept the body of a declared foreigner?

Ashok Paul - son of Dulal Paul- said, We will only accept his (father) body when the government is declared him as an Indian citizen.

We will not accept the body a Bangladeshi man. He is my father. I urged the government that, the government to take action to remove the foreigner tag and declare him as an Indian citizen, Ashok Paul said.

On the other hand, locals said that, his siblings and their family members name were appeared in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was published on Aug 31 by leaving over 19 lakh people.

The family members of Dulal Paul also claimed that, they have the land documents of 1965.

Despite the documents, he was declared as an illegal foreigner and put him into detention. He was a mentally unstable person, a family member of Dulal Paul said.

On the other hand, Sonitpur district Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Kulen Sarma said that a magisterial inquiry will be conducted in the matter.

We will conduct an inquiry to examine what are the conditions of his death. If he was lodged in detention camp whats the condition. What are the documents he had? One person Biplob Das told me that, he had already the documents of 1965. We have taken the matter very seriously. We will conduct a magisterial inquiry, the ADC said.

Twenty-seven people who were declared as illegal foreigners by the Assams Foreigners Tribunals and lodged in detention centres have died in past three years.

Assam has now six detention centres and the seventh detention centre is under construction at Matia in Goalpara district.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)