Bagh Hazarika Centre moves SC, seeks justice for a detention camp inmate

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 14: The Supreme Court has admitted a petition filed by the Bagh Hazarika Centre for Cultural Studies (BHCCS) seeking justice to Moil Mullah who has been languishing in the detention camp in Goalpara since September 5, 2013. Moil claims that he is an Indian.

Talking to newsmen here today, BHCCS office-bearers advocate Syed Burhanur Rahman, advocate Aman Wadud and activist Jiaur Rahman said that a division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Bikramjit Sen and Justice Shivkriti Singh admitted the petition filed by the BHCCS seeking justice to Moil, and asked the Government of India, Government of Assam and Barpeta police to file their respective affidavits in detail regarding Moil Mullah. On behalf of Moil Mullah the case is fought by Advocate Raju Ramchandran. The SC bench also asked Dispur and New Delhi not to deport Moil Mullah from the country till the hearing of his case is over.

BHCCS is a sister concern of MY-FACTS.  

According to the BHCCS office bearers, cases (Nos. 8625, 8626, 8627/98) were registered against Moil Mullah, his father Eshan Mullah and mother Manuara Begum at Barpeta police station (border branch) in 1998 suspecting them to be foreigners. After hearing the cases for five years, Barpeta IM(DT) under IM(DT) case No. 1078/2003 and 1076/2003 ruled that Eshan Mullah and  Manuara Begum were Indians. "However, in a turn of fate, the case against Moil Mullah remained undisposed. The worst for him is that the IM(DT) Act was abrogated in 2005, and that led all the pending cases to be transferred to the Foreigners Tribuls," the office-bearers said, and added: "In 2006, the Foreigners Tribul No. 2 heard the case of Moil Mullah afresh at Barpeta (Case No. 386/2006) which Moil Mullah was not aware of. When the Tribul issued him a notice, he went to an advocate who told him that he had nothing to worry as his parents were declared Indians by the IM(DT) Tribul. A few such notices kept going to him. On February 16, 2012 the Foreigners Tribul declared him not an Indian, and that prompted him to move the Gauhati High Court on June 20, 2012 and filed a case (WPC 3138/12). The HC bench comprising Justice BK Sarma asked the police to arrest Moil Mullah on August 1, 2013. The Barpeta police arrested Moil on September 5, 2013 and sent him to the detention camp in Goalpara. On March 21, 2014, he moved the High Court again and said that he was illiterate and as such he failed to gauge the consequence of ignoring the Tribul's notice. The court refused to buy his contention of being illiterate as he has signed the documents."         

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