After a year and a half in a detention center as ‘illegal aliens’, the New Year has brought freedom and citizenship to Mohammad Nur Hussain, 34, his wife Sahera Begum, 26, and their two minor children, who Indigenous people have been declared in a new trial by an Alien Court (FT).
“We are proud Indians. We belong to Assam. They wrongly accused us of being Bangladeshi and said we illegally crossed the border. How is that possible? I was born here, ”Hussain, a Guwahati rickshaw puller who hails from Lawdong village in Assam’s Udalguri district, told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
Although the names of Hussain’s grandparents are listed on the 1951 National Citizen Registry (NRC), his father’s name, along with his grandparents, was on the 1965 voter list. Begum’s father also appeared in NRC 1951 and on the 1966 voters list, and the family has land documents dating from 1958-59. The deadline for identifying an Indian citizen in Assam is March 24, 1971.
However, none of this was worth much as Guwahati police began investigating the couple’s citizenship credentials in 2017. In August of that year, Begum’s case was referred to the Kamrup District FT No. 4 (Metro ) and in January of the following year, it was done by Hussain.
“We are both illiterate and we were not in a position to understand the documents or what we were supposed to do,” Hussain said.
While Hussain secured a lawyer for himself by paying Rs 4,000, his wife was not represented in court. However, on August 28, 2018, Hussain’s lawyer withdrew from the case, after which he missed successive hearings at the FT.
FT have cleared 2 lakh of cases
Foreign Courts are quasi-judicial bodies that decide whether a person is an ‘illegal alien’ or not. The FTs deal with the cases of those referred by the state police and those marked as doubtful by the electoral authorities. As of July 31, FTs had received 4.34 lakh of cases, of which more than 2 lakh have been eliminated.
“The lawyer told me that he would not be able to pay his fees and other expenses. He said I should consider fleeing Guwahati or the police could arrest me. But I said, ‘Why should I run? What wrong have I done? Hussain said.
On May 29, 2018, the FT declared Begum a ‘foreigner’ and Hussain was declared as such on March 30 of the following year. Article 9 of the Aliens Law establishes that the responsibility of proving that a person is not a foreigner rests with the person. Thus, when they do not appear before the FT, the member may proceed ex parte.
In June 2019, when the couple were arrested and sent to the Goalpara District Detention Center, their world collapsed around them.
“There was no one to take care of the children. Our relatives are in the village, so we take our children (ages 7 and 5) to the detention center, ”Begum said, adding that her oldest son, Shahjahan, had to be taken out of school.
“In jail, my kids kept saying they wanted to go home,” she said.
With the couple in jail, some of their relatives reached out to Aman Wadud, a Guwahati-based human rights lawyer who, along with defenders Syed Burhanur Rehman and Zakir Hussain, represented them in the Gauhati High Court and more. late at the FT.
“Not everyone who is accused of being ‘foreigner’ gets lawyers. Many Indian citizens are becoming stateless because they cannot even afford legal representation, ”Wadud told The Indian Express.
On October 9, the HC annulled the FT’s orders and ordered a new trial.
On December 16, a couple of weeks after the couple was released on bail, the FT declared Hussain an Indian citizenship.
On Wednesday, Begum also had the foreign label removed. That day, as the lawyers and the couple celebrated the verdict, Wadud asked little Shahjahan, “What will you become when you grow up?” “Ukil (lawyer),” replied the 7-year-old boy.
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