Three years ago, the border wing of the Assam police knocked on the door of Ajit Mahanta Baisnab.
The 53-year-old e-rickshaw driver in Bongaigaon district was told that he was suspected of being an illegal immigrant and a complaint had been made against him in 2002.
“I didn’t even know there was a case against me,” Baisnab told Scroll. “The police told me to connect with a lawyer and fight the case in the court.”
Baisnab denies he is a foreigner. He said he was born in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district and came to Gossaigaon when he was six years old.
“I studied there till Class 4 and I have a school certificate from 1982 that shows that,” he told Scroll. He also said he had documents in his possession that proved that his father was a resident of Bengal in 1957.
For the last three years, Baisnab’s case is being heard at the foreigners’ tribunals – quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship and are unique to Assam.
If only the Assam police had waited till July 2024 to act on the complaint against him, Baisnab would have been spared the difficulty of facing Assam’s labyrinthine citizenship trials.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.