Reddy reportedly said, “The foreigners tribunal observed that none of the documents and their content produced by Mohammad Sanaullah was proved by the authority concerned to establish the linkage about his citizenship.” Reddy further said, “The foreigners tribunal found that Mohammad Sanaullah failed to furnish the required evidence under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, to establish his linkage to his parentage on Indian soil prior to March 25, 1971, and to submit any proof to establish the fact that he was an Indian citizen by birth.”
Mohammad Sanaullah, who served in the Army and fought in the Kargil war, and who received a medal and letter of appreciation from none other than the then President of India for his service to the nation, was declared ‘foreigner’ on March 27, 2019 by the Boko FT, based on a minor confusion about his age.
Moreover, Chandrabaran Das, the Border Police official (now retired) who had initially filed a report flagging Sanaullah’s citizenship, has clarified that this is a case of mistaken identity. In an interview to NDTV, Das who was a sub-inspector with the Assam Border Police when he filed the report in 2009, says that these are two different men with the same name i.e Mohammed Sanaullah. His report had mentioned that Mohammed Sanaullah was an illiterate man and daily wage earner who had confessed that he originally hailed from Bangladesh.
In light of this revelation, all proceedings against the war veteran should have been summarily quashed as now there is no real case against him. But he is only out because he managed to secure bail, something he shouldn’t have had to apply for in the first place. Moreover, the man who had dedicated 30 years of his life serving the nation in some of the most hostile and insurgency prone areas, will now be kept under surveillance almost like a criminal. The provisions of his bail require Mohammed Sanaullah to submit his biometric data to the authorities. The bail order says, “… prior to releasing the applicant on bail, the biometrics of the iris of both eyes, the fingerprints of both hands and photograph of the petitioner shall be obtained.” A copy of his bail order may be read here