Headmaster Caught Red-Handed for Alleged Forgery in NRC at Kharupetia

Guwahati: At a time when the entire state of Assam is heated up with the issue of NRC, another sensational incident has come to light at Kharupetia

In a sensational incident in Kharupetia under Darrang district in Assam, a school headmaster was caught red-handed while taking bribe on Friday in lieu of providing certificates for enrolling names in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

According to reports the headmaster has been identified as Abdul Hamid of Baharbari Girls’ Lower Primary (LP) School and was caught red-handed while taking bribe in exchange for providing educational certificates. He is alleged to have taken Rs 500 to Rs1,000 in exchange for providing those certificates to enroll names in the ongoing NRC updating process in Assam. Hamid was later handed over to the police by the local people. The local people have also demanded stringent action against the headmaster.

Confirming about the incident Police sources stated that “investigations are on”.

Reports of corruption have surfaced earlier too in the entire NRC exercise going on in the State. In April this year, the police in Western Assam’s Dhubri town detained two special verification officers who were assigned the job of updating the NRC for demanding ‘service charge’ from people summoned to submit documents establishing their citizenship.

There have been several reports of people offering bribes, submitting forged documents or borrowing legacy data of genuine citizens to be included in the citizen’s register. Earlier this year, in Darrang district’s Sipajhar too, police arrested two people of suspected nationality – San Khan and Nayan Khan – for offering to bribe Rs 20,000 to the NRC officials for including their names in the second draft.

Officials said at least half a dozen such cases have been reported from Central Assam’s Nagaon and Morigaon districts with some offering up to Rs 2 lakh to get their names included in the NRC.

The updating process of NRC started in Assam the year 2013 under the strict monitoring of the Supreme Court of India to include the names of those persons (or their descendants) who appear in the NRC, 1951, or in any of the Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of 24 March 1971or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to midnight of 24 March 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before 24 March 1971.

On the midnight of 31 December 2017, Part Draft NRC was released and subsequently on 30 July 2018, the Complete Draft NRC was release

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