Assam Director General of Police Mukesh Sahay on Tuesday clarified that the police’s move to register a case against a retired Army official is a case of mistaken identity and that the mistake took place due to the close similarity in the names of retired Army official and a suspected foreigner.
Sahay on Tuesday addressed a hurried Press conference at the Assam Police headquarters and said that the police’s notice was intended to be served on Md Azmal Haque, son of lt Maqbool Ali, village Kalahikhas, police station Boko, and district Kamrup (Rural). His wife’s name as per the case records is Mrs Mazrul Bibi, he has two sons namely Majribur Ali and Aabur Ali and one daughter Asmina Khatun.
“Prime facie it appears that the notice has been served on the Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Md Azmal Haque, son of Mqkbul Hussain whose wife is namely Momtaz Khanam. His son’s name is Elias Hoque and his daughter’s name is Shadida Yasim. This clearly shows that the case was registered against a different person and not against the retired Indian Army officer,” Sahay said adding that due to the close similarity in the names, the notice appears to have been wrongly served on the retired JCO.
It is unfortunate, the DGP said.
It may be mentioned here that Md Md Ajmal Haque, had served the Indian Army for 30 years before retiring as a Junior Commissioned Officer in 2008. Haque, was commissioned by the President of India in the regular Army in the rank of Naib Subedar in January 2003.
“The matter is looked into by Director General (DG) Border and Superintendent of police (SP) of Kamrup,” he said adding that while the local police could not serve the notice in the first attempt and brought it back to Boko police station, the retired JCO on his own collected the notice from police station through his brother despite border police posted in Boko suggesting that the instant notice was ‘perhaps’ not meant for him.
The DGP said that the original proceeding relates to 2008 and has not originated during the present regime.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has directed that the matter must be investigated expeditiously and accountability fixed for lapses, if any, resulting in the wrong serving of the notice. DG border and SP have been directed to investigate the matter and submit findings, fixing the accountability within a week.