‘Notices because of false documents submitted by people to get Aadhaar cards’.
Hyderabad: The cancellation notices to around 127 persons with Aadhaar cards in Hyderabad’s Old City have nothing to do with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), clarified both the officials of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as well as the intelligence cops of the Telangana government. These notices were purely based on the false documents submitted by the persons for obtaining Aadhaar cards.
All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)’s Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has been making these notices a national issue by terming them as the first step of the Centre’s grand design to divest certain sections of people of their citizenship. Owaisi this week demanded that officials should clarify the percentage of Muslims and Dalits among those who received these notices.
He also made a similar demand while addressing a rally against CAA on Thursday in Bangalore where several front organisations that oppose the citizenship linked laws contemplated by the BJP-led Narendra Modi government since recently. Owaisi is also planning to take the help of other like-minded parties to raise the Hyderabad developments in Parliament next month.
However, officials of both UIDAI and Telangana police have clarified to this newspaper on Friday that the notices had nothing to do with either CAA or any other move. “These people have simply violated the norms of Aadhaar and illegally obtained the cards by producing fake documents. They would be booked under the relevant sections,” said an official of UIDAI on condition of anonymity.
Interestingly, the cops of Intelligence Wing of Telangana, too, endorsed the similar view, though the TRS government led by CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao takes a different stand on CAA, NRC and NPR from that of the Centre. In fact, Telangana police, too, are investigating the manner in which several persons had got Aadhaar cards with fake documents. Notably, most of them are found to be Rohingyas from Myanmar.
Mohammed Sattar Khan is among the 90 persons from the same locality in the Old City which is populated by Muslims, who received the UIDAI notices last week. He claimed that he was born and brought up in the Old City and that he need not prove his nationality or domicile status. But he is found to have misused his papers for getting Aadhar.
These notices have been issued in the last few months to a total number of around 350 persons in the city, who had been under the UIDAI scanner. As per Sections 27 and 28 of the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016, brought in by the Modi government, anyone found to be violating biometrics or identity details can be booked and his or her card can be cancelled.
A chance police inquiry into a passport verification of a Rohingya Muslim in the Old City’s Talab Katta area recently led to his fake documents through which he got Aadhaar card. On further investigation, the officials have found that several persons had got Aadhaar cards by using one single name and address. Even Sattar Khan’s biometrics is not matching with his own, officials explained.
Initially, UIDAI officials set up an inquiry panel to hear these cases, but it was dropped as most of those who got these notices couldn’t be traced. The cops are also examining whether others too had got passports based on these Aadhaar cards. Now all these 127 persons were given time until May 31 to clarify their stand and prove their identity.
Their cards will be cancelled and cases will be booked against them, if they failed to prove their case by then.
The authorities would go as per the existing Aadhaar laws and don’t need CAA or any other proviso to cancel their cards. “Several bodies including AIMIM and joint action committee of advocates or Muslim rights groups have been terming the UIDAI’s move as anti-Muslim and is part of a grand conspiracy to do way their citizenship, which is totally baseless,” explained a UIDAI official in Hyderabad.
The controversy generated political heat across the country and efforts are underway to drum up support to those who received the notices.
The issue assumed significance in view of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s proposed meeting in support of CAA in Hyderabad on March 15. Presently, Muslim groups are holding weekly protest meetings in Hyderabad.
Telangana BJP president K. Lakshman termed the controversy around notices to some individuals who got Aadhaar cards through fake documents as vilification campaign against the BJP government at the Centre. “We would like to clarify that none would be divested of their citizenship through CAA or NRC, Muslims need not be worried,” he told this newspaper.