NRC official refutes reports of Rohingya migrant's inclusion in draft

Assam coordinator of National Register of Citizens (NRC), Prateek Hajela has termed media reports of inclusion of a Rohingya migrant in the draft NRC as false and baseless.

Reports on inclusion of a Rohingya migrant in the draft NRC were published in some dailies on Sunday (July 21) and Monday (July 22). In a press communique on Monday, Hajela said, “The media reports have referred to one person named Alam Hussain Mazumdar who was arrested in Cachar recently on various charges and has been mentioned as an illegal Rohingya migrant.”

Also read: Centre, Assam seek Supreme Court’s nod for extending NRC deadline

“In this connection, it is clarified that this news is absolutely false as the said Alam Hussain Mazumdar was not included in draft NRC on account of being found ineligible in family tree verification and for submitting a forged birth certificate,” he said. This clarification is being issued since irresponsible false reporting has the potential of casting aspersions on the purity of the NRC, Hajela said.

He said that the media reports appeared to have been published without verification from the NRC authorities. Alleging wrongful inclusions and exclusions in the NRC, the Centre and the Assam government had on July 19 sought from the Supreme Court an extension of the July 31 deadline for publication of the final draft.

Also read: One lakh more people excluded from draft NRC in Assam

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice RF Nariman took note of the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, that they be allowed to undertake verification of 20 per cent random samples of citizens due to wrongful inclusions or exclusions in the NRC.

The court fixed the applications of both the governments for deliberation on July 23 on the issue of the proposed sample survey.