Dipankar Sarkar, a carpenter based in Rampur, a village under the Boxirhat police station of Cooch Behar, received two notices from the foreigners’ tribunal of Assam in January and March this year, where he has been asked to appear before the tribunal to prove his Indian citizenship.
In recent months, at least six persons in north Bengal, including Sarkar, have received such a notice from Assam.
The issue came to light as Sarkar, who claimed to have been born in Cooch Behar, is now scouting for documents to prove his nationality and visiting various state government offices in Calcutta and Guwahati.
“I received the first notice in January this year, and the second in March. After the second notice, I went to Assam and furnished a land deed and my name in the voter list of my booth. Those who checked the documents, however, were not satisfied and told me to bring some more documents to prove my point. However, they didn't specify which documents to bring," Sarkar said.
"I am searching for old land deeds but I don't know what to search for,” he said.
According to him, around 11 years ago, he went to Assam with three others in search of a job.
“We rented an accommodation in Guwahati and were working as carpenters. At that time, Assam police detained us and took us to the Paltan Bazaar police station of the city on suspicion that we were Bangladeshis. There, we furnished our voter and Aadhaar cards,” said Sarkar.
“We were released but were told to find out the voter list of 1966 and arrange the land deed of 1971 within a fortnight. We gave the police those documents. Our fingerprints were collected, along with our residential address and cellphone numbers. Since then, there has been no further communication from the Assam police. But these recent notices have left me worried,” he said.
On Friday, Abhijit De Bhowmik, the Cooch Behar district Trinamool president, met Sarkar at his house and assured him of all help.
“He will not reply to these notices any more. It is just an attempt by the BJP to create an atmosphere uncertainty among people in Cooch Behar ahead of the Assembly elections,” said Bhowmik.