Unabated illegal migration from Bangladesh to Assam has reached such a state that even a Pakistani national sneaked in from Dhaka and contested an Assembly election in 1996. This piece of startling information came in the form of a reference in a judgment delivered by Justice B K Sharma of the Gauhati High Court last week. Justice Sharma, in the course of his judgment, referred to an earlier judgment passed by the same High Court to recall how one Md Kamaruddin, who possessed a Pakistani passport, had contested assembly elections in Assam.

Justice Sharma, in his 95-page judgment disposing of a bunch of petitions filed by 61 persons who were declared as foreigners (read infiltrators) by various foreigners’ tribunals, said, “The above cases (of the 61 petitioners) have reminded me of the case of Md Kamaruddin reported in 2000. In that case, the petitioner (Md Kamaruddin), after successfully entering Assam from Pakistan through Bangladesh, not only roamed around the Indian soil, but also contested the 1996 Assembly election from No 90 Jamunamukh Assembly constituency. The petitioner was in possession of a passport issued by the Pakistan Government, on the strength of which he travelled to Dhaka in Bangladesh,” the judge remarked, adding, “This can happen only in Assam.”

The Election Commission’s records of the 1996 Assembly elections in Assam, however, do not show a candidate by the name of Md Kamaruddin. The detailed judgment of January 21, 2000, passed by Justice J N Sharma was not immediately available to verify whether Md Kamaruddin had actually changed his name to contest the elections.