AGENCIES / GUWAHATI
A deadlock continues in Assam over a dead body, as the family of a mentally unstable man who died while in detention after being declared a foreigner on Sunday in Assam’s Tezpur, continues to reject his body unless the administration declares him an Indian citizen.
Dulal Chandra Paul, 65, who was from Alisinga village of Sonitpur district, died at Guwahati Medical College on Sunday after an illness.
This has left the Assam government in a fix despite the government ordering a probe into the matter after over ten thousand people from the area blocked roads and staged dharnas.
“Since the state has declared him a foreigner, they should hand over his body to Bangladesh. We will accept the body only if the government issued a statement that Paul was not a foreigner but an Indian,” the victim’s eldest son Ashish told media persons.
The family says Dulal Chandra Paul was declared a foreigner in 2017 in an ex-parte judgment despite being mentally unstable.
The state government has sent several delegations to his village for past four days to convince the family members and the villagers to accept the body – they have not yet complied to the request.
According to official sources, Mr Paul was being treated for diabetes and psychiatric ailments and was examined by doctors of the Tezpur Medical College and Hospital (TMCH) on October 11 and brought back to the detention centre the same day.
What has irked the family and the villagers the most is the fact that the prison department officials came with a document to hand over the body which allegedly mentioned him as a ‘declared foreigner’. His residential address column was left blank.
“They know the address very well yet kept it empty. We presume that later they would put some fictitious address in Bangladesh. So if he is Bangladeshi, why sent his to us? They should send the body to Bangladesh,” his son added.
The administration is now looking at options to wait for a day or two and see what previsions are there to cremate the body without the consent of the family, official sources further added.
Over 19 lakh people have been left out of the National Register of Citizens; the window period for final appeal at tribunals is expected to start in November.