Caravan News
GUWAHATI – Weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that there is no detention center in the country , a 55-year-old man, lodged in Goalpara detention centre in Assam, died at a hospital on Friday.
Police said Naresh Koch was undergoing treatment at Guwahati medical College after he suffered a massive stroke on December 22. Mr Koch is the 29th person to have died while in detention centre in Assam in last three years.
Naresh Koch, a daily wager from Tinikunia Para village, first came to Meghalaya from Bangladesh, then known as East Pakistan, in 1964 and settled down in Tinikunia para where he had been living for around 35 years.
Mr Koch had voted in every election till 2018. He was declared a foreigner in 2018 by a foreigners tribunal after he failed to appear for four consecutive hearings. Naresh Koch belonged to the Koch-Rajbonshis community, which has tribal status in Meghalaya but are awaiting the scheduled tribe status in Assam.
From 2016 to October 13, 2019, as many as 28 detenues have died either in the detention centres or in hospitals in the state, according to the government.
“As on November 22, 2019, 988 foreigners were lodged in six detention centres in Assam,” Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha in November.
Nearly 1.9 million people were excluded in the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was published in August 31 in 2019. Assam has six detention centres across the state where the Foreigners Tribunals send people prior to their deportation after declaring them as aliens while determining their citizenship.
These people might face statelessness if they fail to prove their Indian citizenship credentials in future.
