Guwahati HC grants bail to war veteran Sanaullah detained as 'foreigner'

Kargil war veteran Mohammed Sanaullah, who was sent to a detention camp in Assam after a tribunal declared him a 'foreigner', was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court on Friday.

A division bench of justices Manojit Bhuyan and Prasanta Kumar Deka heard a writ petition along with an interlocutory application and granted bail to Sanaullah on two local sureties of Rs 20,000 each.

The bench ruled that Sanaullah cannot leave Kamrup district, of which he is a resident, without the permission of its superintendent of police.

It also issued notices on the respondents, including the Union of India, the Assam government and the Foreigners' Tribunal, Boko. Sanaullah is likely to be released from the detention centre on Saturday.

His family members had filed the writ petition against the tribunal's May 23 order along with the interlocutory application. While Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaisingh, along with Gauhati High Court lawyers Syed Burhanur Rehman, Aman Wadud and Samim Ahmed Barbhuiyan, appeared on behalf of the petitioner, advocate U K Nair represented the respondents.

The Foreigners' Tribunal at Boko had last month declared 52-year-old Sanaullah a 'foreigner', following which he was sent to the detention centre at Goalpara.

He is among the 40 lakh people whose names were not included in the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), published last year. Sanaullah, who retired from the Army in 2017, was awarded the President's Medal in 2014.

A resident of Kolohikash village in Boko area of Kamrup district, he was serving as a sub-inspector in the Assam Border Police before being declared a foreigner and dismissed from service.