From Our Special Correspondent
GUWAHATI: A middle-aged man, who was lodged in a detention camp at Goalpara about two years back, was declared dead following illness at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), official sources confirmed on Saturday.
Naresh Koch, a resident of Tinkunia under Mornoi police station in Goalpara district, was declared a ‘foreigner of post-1971 stream’ by the Foreigners Tribunal (number 5) at Mornoi, through a judgment on June 1, 2017, and subsequently kept at the detention camp.
According to the judgment, Koch had “entered Assam without valid documents from a specified country.”
Reportedly, Koch’s health had started to deteriorate a year after he was detained at the camp and had suffered a stroke at the detention centre, following which he was treated at Goalpara Civil Hospital and finally referred to GMCH here.
Doctors at the hospital declared the ailing detainee dead on Thursday.
Sources in Goalpara however said that Koch and his family had come to Goalpara as refugees (from then-East Pakistan) way back in 1964 and settled in the district.
Apart from an official identity card, Koch had in his possession a special family identity card, which is issued to government-declared BPL (below poverty line) families by the food and civil supplies branch of Goalpara district.
Koch’s family however could not be contacted for comments.
