On suspicion of being Bangladesh citizen, eGujarat HC directs for conditional release of man detained for 20 months

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On suspicion of being Bangladesh citizen, eGujarat HC directs for conditional release of man detained for 20 months​

• By: Express News Service | Ahmedabad |
• Updated: February 5, 2022 12:16:08 am

The birth was registered years later and as per Amir’s Aadhar card, his birth year is reflected as 1984. At the time of detention, Amir was married and had three children of his own, all three born in Ahmedabad as well. (File)

In July 2020, Rashida moved the Gujarat HC with a habeas corpus petition, seeking the court’s direction to the SOG assistant police commissioner to produce Amir before the court and to release him from “illegal detention”.​

The Gujarat High Court on Friday directed for the conditional release of a Chandola lake resident, who has been in detention since the nearly 19 past months by Ahmedabad police on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi citizen.

While the judgment was pronounced on Friday, the detailed verdict remains to be made public.

Amir Sidikbhai Shaikh, was detained by a special operations group (SOG) official on the afternoon of June 18, 2020, reportedly when he was on his way to work, on the ground that Amir was suspected to be a Bangladeshi national who was staying in India “without permission”.

Following Amir’s detention, his mother, Rashida, had approached Juhapura police station, furnishing voter’s ID card, Rashida and her husband’s Aadhaar cards along with Amir’s Aadhaar card and the family’s ration card, insisting for Amir’s release from detention, but to no avail.

In July 2020, Rashida moved the Gujarat HC with a habeas corpus petition, seeking the court’s direction to the SOG assistant police commissioner to produce Amir before the court and to release him from “illegal detention”.

Rashida, in her petition before the Gujarat HC, had submitted that she and her husband have been residing in Ahmedabad since “a very long time” with seven children, all seven born in Ahmedabad. At the time of Amir’s birth, Rashida was working at a construction site and Amir was born near the site and being illiterate, she was not aware of birth registration and thus had not registered his birth at the time.

The birth was registered years later and as per Amir’s Aadhar card, his birth year is reflected as 1984. At the time of detention, Amir was married and had three children of his own, all three born in Ahmedabad as well.

In an additional affidavit filed by Rashida before the Gujarat HC in August 2020, it was further pointed out that Amir was detained in the “absence of any FIR or any formal complaint and without any genuine efforts to actually identify the genuineness of their citizenship”.

She had also alleged that the “detention and witch hunt” of Amir by the SOG was done as “an attempt to partake functions of the Foreigners Tribunal established pursuant to Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 envisaged under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and to determine issues of citizenship”, which the SOG was doing “illegally and unconstitutionally”, without “jurisdiction and authority”.

Appearing before the Gujarat HC in July 2020 pursuant to filing of the petition and upon instruction from the court, DCP of SOG Harshad Patel had submitted that the corpus (Amir) is “suspected of being Bangladeshi national and though inquired, no documents have been produced by him (corpus) for verification of certificate of birth or any other document, which may confirm his nationality and therefore, restriction order came to be passed against him on 30.06.2020.”

Patel had also submitted before the court that “along with four other Bangladeshis, who travelled to this Country two to four years back, the corpus has been placed under restriction order.”

The court at the time in its order, had recorded, “Considering the fact that there is no criminal antecedent… it has been urged that the man possibly travelled to this country from Bangladesh as a child aged 3 to 4 years.”
Rashida, represented by advocate Anand Yagnik, had submitted in an affidavit in August 2020 that “several people living in slums around the Chandola lake including the family of the detenu (Amir) because of their West Bengal origin have been hovering under the cloud of suspicion…and again the respondents (police authorities) detain them and then release them after a few days and at times after a few hours. The detenu (Amir) has been similarly detained once prior on the same grounds and then was released by the end of the day.”

The petitioner had also pointed out that as per Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, every person born in India on or after 26th Day of January, 1950 but before the 1st Day of July, 1987, shall be a citizen by birth, and thus by this reasoning itself, Amir being born prior to 1987, is a citizen of India by birth.

It was also clarified by Rashida that the suspicion of Amir being Bangladeshi was far removed from reality as Rashida and her husband have nothing to do with Bangladesh and “are basically people belonging to minority Muslim community and several years ago migrated from West Bengal to Gujarat and have been residing in the slums around Chandola Lake, Ahmedabad.”

It was also submitted by the petitioner in a July 2020 hearing that the corpus’ parents have PAN card and “other vital documents” and had emphasised that these documents were examined “at the time of allotment of a residential plot to the family in the post-Godhra incident period”.

In 2010, Gujarat government had decided to rehabilitate families identified as Indian nationals who suffered from the 2002 riots, following an order from the Gujarat HC to this effect. AMC had allotted a plot near Ganeshnagar Piplaj road and Rs 50,000 to Amir’s father in April 2010.

On suspicion of being Bangladesh citizen, Gujarat HC directs for conditional release of man detained for 20 months

In July 2020, Rashida moved the Gujarat HC with a habeas corpus petition, seeking the court’s direction to the SOG assistant police commissioner to produce Amir before the court and to release him from “illegal detention”.

indianexpress.com