Assam Police have registered a case against a former employee of the National Register of Citizens Secretariat in Guwahati following a complaint that she did not share passwords of the two email addresses, including a Gmail account, that she was operating. The former employee has said the complaint was registered even as she sought time to submit the passwords.
“We have registered a case after a complaint by the Deputy Secretary, Home Department, which alleges that a former employee of the NRC secretariat did not share passwords of the two email addresses,” said Munna Prasad Gupta, Commissioner of Police, Guwahati. He said the case was registered on February 12 and is currently under investigation.
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In her complaint, Chandana Mahanta, the Deputy Secretary who also functions as the executive director of the NRC Secretariat alleges that the project manager Ajupi Baruah, who handed over charge on November 11 last year, did not share passwords of official email addresses. Mahanta claimed the emails contained “sensitive correspondences/information on NRC”. The complaint alleged that it constituted a violation under the stringent Official Secrets Act since it pertains to the national security and integrity of the country.
Baruah told Outlook that she received a letter on February 7 at her official residence and since she was traveling, she sought time to submit the passwords on her return on February 17.
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A copy of the letter written by Mahanta to the former project manager dated February 3 asked her to furnish the passwords of the two emails by February 7.
Baruah said she received the letter on February 7 and wrote an email to Mahanta on the same day informing her that she would be visiting the office on February 17 to submit the passwords. The former project manager said one of the emails was not even functional for around two years.
Baruah said she created the Gmail account since everyone in the NRC Secretariat was using the Gmail platform for emails. She added that she emailed the password to the concerned authorities upon learning that a complaint had been registered against her.
Baruah handed over the charge around the same time when former state coordinator Prateek Hajela left for deputation to his home state of Madhya Pradesh after a Supreme Court order.
NRC Secretariat in Assam is at the Centre of another controversy after its website was disrupted over non-payment of dues to Wipro, which has been working as the system integrator of the project.
The NRC list was published on August 31 excluding over 1.9 million people. Those excluded from the list still await their rejection orders which would form the basis of their appeals to the foreigners' tribunals where they will have to prove they are Indian citizens.
