Assam D-voter dies in detention camp
Guwahati, May 13 (IBNS): A doubtful voter (D-voter) has died at a detention camp in Assam after he falling from bed, authorities said.
According to the reports, the incident happened at Tezpur central jail, where a D-voter identified as 58-year-old Basudev Biswas, lodged.
He has been in the Tezpur detention camp since 2016.
He passed away after falling from his bed on Saturday last.
The jail authority had immediately admitted him at Kanaklata civil hospital, Tezpur, where he was declared dead.
Sonitpur district Superintendent of Police (SP) Kumar Sanjit Krishnan said that, Basudev Biswas had been lodged at the detention camp at Tezpur central jail since 2016 and he was undergoing trial in a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Nagaon district for his D-voter status.
“Biswas was suffering from asthma and treatment was going on. He was also referred to Guwahati Medical College hospital,” the top police official said.
Meanwhile, Biswas body has been sent to Rupahi area in central Assam’s Nagaon district from where he hailed.
The family members of Basudev said that, Biswas was genuine Indian citizen and police had arrested him doubtful.
“We are genuine Indian citizen and have all documents to prove it,” a family member of deceased person said.
In 2011, the Gauhati High court ordered D-voters to be transferred to the Foreigners’ Tribunals set up under the Foreigners Tribunal Order 1964.
D-voter is a category of voters in Assam who are disenfranchised by the government on the account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials and the person declared as D-voter is not given the elector's photo identity card.
The D-voter system was introduced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in 1997, which prepared a list by incorporating names of people, who could not provide proper documents, evidence to prove their Indian citizenship.
There were then 2,20,209 D-voters in the state and it came down to around 1.20 lakh in the final photo electoral rolls 2019.
The D-voter tag remains against the name of a person until the Foreigners Tribunal declares the person to be an Indian citizen.
There are 100 Foreigners Tribunal functioning in the state.
According to the reports, Barpeta district has highest number of D-voters with 19,739 D-voters followed by Sonitpur district with 16,755 D-voters.
(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
