Former Armyman detained as ‘foreigner’ in Assam gets bail

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati HC on Friday granted conditional interim bail to former armyman Mohammad Sanaullah, who was sent to a detention camp on May 28 after a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam declared him as an ‘illegal foreigner’.


The bench of Justices Manojit Bhuyan and Prasanta Kumar Deka ordered that Sanaullah, 52, be released on bail after furnishing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with two local sureties. The court directed him not to move out of the territorial limits of Kamrup district without the prior approval of superintendent of police. The bench has also directed the authorities to obtain the biometrics of Sanaullah before releasing him.

Challenging the tribunal’s order, Sanaullah had moved the HC on May 31. He had also filed an interlocutory application, seeking his release from detention.

Sanaullah retired from the Army in 2017 as an honourary lieutenant after which he had joined Assam Police as an assistant sub-inspector.

In September 2018, proceedings against Sanaullah under Foreigners’ Act were initiated on the basis of a 2008 report of Assam Border Police, the same wing of Assam Police in which Sanaullah later worked, to the tribunal that he was an ‘illegal migrant’.

Border Police officer Chandramal Das, who had inquired and reported that Sanaullah was an illegal foreigner, had mentioned his profession as ‘labourer’ in the report. It also incorporated a purported ‘confessional statement’ of Sanaullah that he had illegally entered India ‘through a secret route’.