Guwahati: The image is stark — an emaciated man is hand-cuffed and chained to a bed with a saline drip inserted into his other arm. It has drawn comparisons to the concentration camps in Nazi Germany after it emerged that the hollow-looking Ratan Chandra Biswas had been sent to a detention centre meant for illegal foreigners in Assam.
He is Ratan Biswas. Currently being chained in a #NRC detention centre in Assam. He is Bengali. He is a human.
The one below are jews living in concentration camp during holocaust.
You have lost your soul India.
What's India without a soul. pic.twitter.com/6hRozTxNIw— Aparna (@chhuti_is) September 27, 2019
The image, which went viral on social media in the last week of September, is, however, from November last year and Biswas is not at a detention centre but in a hospital in Guwahati.
His son-in-law, Tarapad Shil, told ThePrint that the photograph was from when Biswas was sent to Guwahati for treatment for stomach ulcers.
The family, however, does not know why he was chained.
“He’s not chained in the detention centre but he is jailed there anyway,” Shil said. “We tell the guards not to treat him like a thief or a dacoit but no one listens. They just say that they’ve got orders from the top. We hoped for at least the doctors to tell the authorities not to chain him but no one said anything.”
Shil said Biswas’ two sons and two daughters have also not made it to the final NRC list. Only one daughter, who is Shil’s wife, and Biswas’ wife are on the list.
Biswas, a Bengali Dalit Hindu, has been lodged at the Goalpara Detention Camp since May 2016. He received a doubtful foreigners’ notice in February 2016 and was declared a foreigner by the Bongaigaon tribunal. He has spent over three years in the detention camp.
In an earlier video released to assert his Indian citizenship, Biswas can be seen saying he has studied till Class 6 and that the 1966 voters list has his grandfather’s name, and that there is also a small piece of land in his father’s name.
His photographs and the video have since led to fears that the 19 lakh people, excluded from the final NRC list released a month ago, may meet a similar fate.
Ratan Chandra Biswas is detained in Goalpara detention centre for 2 years and 5 months. He was taken to Goalpara Civil hospital where he is seen in handcuff in hospital bed.
Outrageous is an understatement! pic.twitter.com/uhiyhU6JmG
— Aman Wadud (@AmanWadud) November 3, 2018
Family waiting for his release
Biswas’ family says they had been promised by authorities that he will be released by the time of Durga Puja, which has already begun. They are also pinning their hopes on a June 2019 order by the Supreme Court that states detenues who have completed more than three years in detention centres should be released.
Shil also said Biswas’ health is waning. “His health is deteriorating in the detention centre; he is barely eating because of the ulcers in his stomach,” Shil said. “We are waiting for him to be released but don’t know when he will be out. We don’t know who can help us.”
Shil also said it has been an ordeal for the family as they have all moved to Goalpara from Bongaigaon. The family usually manages to go see him once or twice a month but last saw him only in July this year. “We are poor people and have very little money. Though we live in Goalpara, each time we go to the detention centre it costs Rs 1,000,” Shil said.
The district administration, however, insists that the photograph is fake. “I have verified the entire incident with the additional superintendent and can say that nothing of the sort took place. That photo is a wrong photo, you could say that it is a fake,” said Sushanta Biswa Sarma, the DySP of the Goalpara detention centre.
Also read: 5 law schools come together to help those excluded file NRC appeals in Assam