A day after the Gauhati High Court granted him bail, retired Kargil war veteran Mohammed Sanaullah on Saturday walked free from a detention camp in Goalpara district in the state.
The veteran Army Captain was detained by the border wing of the Assam Police last month after a Foreigners' Tribunal in Assam declared him a "foreigner" and sent him to a detention camp in Goalpara district in Western Assam. Sana Ullah was served a notice to appear in the case, but lost it on May 23.
Amjad Ali, Md Kuran Ali and Md Sobahan Ali were named as witnesses I, II, and III in the 2009 enquiry report in Sana Ullah’s case. They were named as residents of Kalahikash village, the same one that Sana Ullah is from. The case files record the witnesses as saying separately that while they were bona fide local residents, they were not aware of Sana Ullah’s citizenship.
On Friday, a divisional bench of the Gauhati High Court granted bail to Sanaullah after hearing the arguments of his counsel Indira Jaising and several others. A division bench of the High Court headed by Justice Monojit Bhuyan and P.K. Deka passed the orders against bail bonds of Rs 20,000 and two sureties, but asked the retired soldier not to leave the territorial jurisdiction of Kamrup and Kamrup (Metro) districts without informing the Superintendent of Police (Border).
The bench also issued notices to all the respondents of the case, including Union of India, state of Assam, Defence Ministry, authorities of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the investigating officer of the Assam police.
Sanaullah, a resident of Kalahikash village under Boko in Assam's Kamrup district, was born in 1967 and joined the Indian Army in 1987. He served in the Army for 30 years before retiring as an Honorary Captain in 2017. He also received a Presidents' Award when he was commissioned as a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army in 2014.