Akbar Ali is not a foreigner anymore. That’s what the Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam says.
On the last day of 2019, the Foreigners’ Tribunal No.2 in Assam’s Bongaigaon dropped case against Akbar Ali of being a foreigner, news website NorthEast Now reported.
Ali was charged twice by the border branch of Bongaigaon’s police of being a foreigner, before being acquitted by the tribunal.
The First Charge
Akbar Ali, a resident of Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district, was first charged of being “foreigner” in 2007 by Bongaigaon police.
Ali fought the case (No. 1432/2007) in FT 2 of Bongaigaon. But the tribunal declared him a foreigner on December 31, 2015. He spent the next three years in Goalpara detention camp.
He was finally released on bail on November 21, 2019.
The Second Charge
However in less than a weeks time after being released on bail, he was served with another notice by the border branch of the Bongaigaon police.
Unlike the previous case though, this time the charges were dropped on the insistence of the police themselves. “SP office itself pleaded for dropping the charge”, Foreigners’ Tribunal member Eva Kakoti told The Telegraph.
Acquittal
FT No.2 of Assam’s Bongaigaon district acquitted him of the charges on December 31, 2019.
“SP (B) of Bongaigaon praying for drop the present case number 192/2019,” the verdict order of FT No.2 reads.
“I am feeling relieved at this verdict. However, I have all the documents and I am not a foreigner,” said Ali.
“One loses everything while fighting cases in courts to establish themselves as Indians. Therefore, we pray before every stakeholder to maintain extreme cautiousness in dealing with these cases,” he added.
Ali’s family had to suffer huge financial losses in fighting the case. His children were forced to leave school due to poverty and his son had to take a cart puller’s job to make two ends meet.
A Jogighopa-based social worker, Monowar Hussain, told The Telegraph, “Tagging a person as foreigner is very serious. One loses everything while fighting cases in courts trying to establish himself/herself as an Indian. We pray before every stakeholder to maintain extreme cautiousness in dealing with these cases.”