GUWAHATI, June 23: City-based NGO, Assam Public Works (APW), has lodged a first information report (FIR) against former Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator, Prateek Hajela and his close associates, for alleged manipulation in the family tree verification during the NRC update process.
A family tree is a chart representing the family relationships in a conventional tree structure.
APW, which is the original petitioner in the Supreme Court which led to the process of updating the NRC about seven years back, alleged that a very high percentage of illegal and doubtful persons’ names have been included in NRC.
“In the interlocutory application (IA) filed by the present state NRC coordinator, it was reported that there have been 40 percent wrong uploading of results of family tree matching which cannot be treated as normal human error but a well-planned, well-coordinated effort to include undeserving persons’ names in the NRC. This is an act of treason towards the nation,” APW president, Aabhijeet Sharma stated in the FIR addressed to the additional director general of police, criminal investigation department (CID) of Assam Police.
“We suspect that Prateek Hajela (the then state coordinator, NRC, Assam) and his close associates in collaboration with officers having illegal migrant backgrounds, and also with some anti-national elements, have used the government mechanism to insert the names of the illegal migrants in the updated NRC,” Sharma stated.
“It is felt that if the call records of the officers and data entry operators working in the immigrant dominated areas are analysed, the nexus between Prateek Hajela, some officers with immigrant background, data entry operators and some minority leaders will come into light enabling the law enforcing agencies to take action against such anti-national activities,” he stated.
“Therefore, we request you to kindly register a case against the accused persons under proper provisions of law and conduct enquiries to book them for their anti national activities,” he added.
The NGO further alleged that “after publication of NRC, it was reported in the present NRC state coordinator’s affidavit filed in the Supreme Court and Gauhati High Court that many anomalies were observed in the NRC list and many illegal and doubtful persons were able to insert their names in NRC.”