26 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
COVER STORY
ASSAMM
ohammad Sanaullah
is free, for now. But his
mind is not without
fear, and his head is not
held high.
The 51-year-old had been a fearless
and proud soldier for 30 years. He
had joined the Army’s Corps of
Electronic and Mechanical Engineers
in 1987, and served with distinction
in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal
Pradesh and Manipur. He was at-
tached to the Rashtriya Rifles for six
years, before he retired in 2017 with
the rank of honorary lieutenant.
Sanaullah’s world came crashing
down on May 28 this year, when the
foreigners’ tribunal declared him a
Bangladeshi and sent him to a deten-
tion camp in Goalpara district. The
welcome at the camp was humiliat-
ing. He was lodged in a mosquito-in-
fested room with 55 others, and was
tortured, starved and forced to relieve
himself openly.
News of his detention created a
huge uproar. The police said it was
only following rules and guidelines,
and that a case against Sanaullah
had been registered at the Boko
police station in Kamrup district in- The case was transferred to the
Guwahati bench of the foreigners’
tribunal two years later, and the tribu-
nal’s verdict was based on a report
submitted by the border branch of
the Assam Police.
The public outcry saw Sanaullah
case being taken up by the Gauhati
High Court. Supreme Court lawyer
Indira Jaising flew to Guwahati to
help his team of lawyers. Led by
advocate Syed Burhanur Rahman,
the lawyers worked for free to secure
him bail.
“The situation of most people who
have been accused of being Bang-
ladeshis is pathetic,” said Rahman.
“They are very poor. How could we
charge them?”
Sanaullah was granted bail on
condition that he remain in Guwaha-
ti. The ordeal has so upset him that
he now fears going out and meeting
strangers. “Only 25 per cent of my
objective has been met; 75 per cent
is still pending,” he said when THE
WEEK met him in Guwahati. “I have
no reason to celebrate. In the eyes of
the law, I am a foreigner. The onus is
on me to prove that I am an Indian.
It is a pity that I have to prove this at
this stage.”
The police had earlier told jour-
nalists that Sanaullah’s arrest was a
“mistake”, but his lawyers say it would
not help his cause. “The police did
not say so in court,” said Rahman. “In
fact, they stood by their report. What
the officers say outside is immaterial,
unless they say the same in court.”
Senior police officers told THE
WEEK that the case against Sanaullah
will not be withdrawn. Though he
lives in an apartment in Guwahati,
his documents show he is a resident
of Kalahikash village near Boko, a
town in Assam’s Kamrup district.
“According to his documents, his
sister was born seven years after hermother’s death. False documents
were produced, and the police had
no choice but to suspect him. The
tribunal upheld [the suspicion],” said
an officer.
Interestingly, when he was de-
clared as a foreigner, Sanaullah was
employed as a sub-inspector in the
Assam Police Border Organisation,
which is tasked with detecting and
detaining suspected foreigners in the
state. He was discharged from his du-
ties a day after the tribunal declared
him a non-citizen.
“He was a very able and efficient
officer,” Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta,
special director-general of police
(border), told THE WEEK. “In fact,
he himself referred many cases to the
foreigners’ tribunal. He did his work
honestly. Now, so far his case is con-
cerned, we cannot interfere because
it is a matter between him and the
tribunal.”
Sanaullah will be back in the de-
tention camp if the tribunal’s verdict
is upheld by the High Court and thehe situation of most
people who have
been accused of
being Bangladeshis is
pathetic. They are very
poor. How could we
charge them?
—Syed Burhanur Rahman
Sanaullah’s lead counsel