Assam NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma files vigilance complaint against predecessor Prateek Hajela

A senior official of the Vigilance & Anti-Corruption wing of Assam Police said it has received a complaint from the NRC State Coordinator but no FIR has been registered yet.

The State coordinator of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has filed a complaint with the vigilance wing against his predecessor Prateek Hajela, alleging financial irregularities.

A senior official of the Vigilance & Anti-Corruption wing of Assam Police told PTI that it has received a complaint from NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma, but no FIR has been registered yet. "We will study the complaint first. If we find any merit in it, we shall discuss with the appropriate authority and proceed," he said.

When contacted, Mr. Sarma told PTI that he filed the complaint on Monday. He, however, declined to comment on its contents. Sources said that Mr. Sarma's complaint alleges financial irregularities during preparation of the final list of the NRC.

Last month, Mr. Sarma had lodged a complaint with the CID against Prateek Hajela, several other officers and data entry operators associated with updating the citizenship document, accusing them of "anti national" and "criminal activities" during the process.

The final NRC was released on August 31, 2019, with the list excluding 19,06,657 people. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

After taking charge, Mr. Sarma had told the Gauhati High Court in an affidavit that in the "supplementary list" of the NRC, over 10,000 names were either wrongly included or excluded, and necessary orders were issued to delete nearly 4,800 "ineligible persons" from the document.