FIR filed against ex-NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela for ‘inclusion of illegal migrants’

Guwahati: Petitioner on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) case whose case has led to the updation of NRC in Assam, the Assam Public Works (APW) has lodged a complaint with the state police CID against the former state NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela for treason.

The APW alleged that Hajela has manipulated the ‘legacy data’ which is taken as proof of permanent residence and included names of tens of thousands of illegal migrants which was published in the final NRC list.

“After observing the inclusion of a very high percentage of illegal and doubtful persons’ names in NRC, it is suspected that there have been manipulations in the family tree verification. In the petition filed by the present state coordinator, NRC, it was reported that there have been 40% wrong uploading of results of family tree matching which cannot be treated as a normal human error but it was a well-planned, well-coordinated effort to include undeserving persons’ name into NRC. This is an act of treason towards the nation,” the APW said in its complaint.

The NGO also alleged that Hajela in connivance with officers having illegal migrant backgrounds and also with some anti-national elements have used the government mechanism to include the names of the illegal migrants in the updated NRC.

“There was a nexus between Hajela, and some officers with an immigrant background, data entry operators and some minority leaders. We urge you to please register a case enabling the law enforcing agencies to take action against such anti-national activities.,” said Abhijeet Sharma, President of APW in his complaint.

It may be mentioned here that the BJP led government in Assam has already said that the re-verification of NRC is top on its agenda.

The final draft of NRC was published on August 31, 2019, in which over 19 lakh people in Assam have been excluded. A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for the NRC, of which 3.11 crore made it to the final list. (UNI)