Says Sondekoppa facility is meant for African drug peddlers; govt affidavit in HC gives details of centres
BENGALURU: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is now Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai who is backing off, and claiming that the state does not have a detention centre. Bommai says the centre, located in Sondekoppa village, 40km from Bengaluru, is meant to lodge African nationals found guilty of drug peddling.
Interestingly, Additional Chief Secretary Rajneesh Goel has, in his affidavit before the high court, said that migrants will soon be shifted to the permanent detention centre in Sondekoppa. A copy of the affidavit is with TNIE. “I respectfully state that in response to the aforesaid letter dated 19-11-2019, the Additional Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police has furnished the temporary foreign detention centre details in Karnataka, including Bengaluru city, till such time the permanent detention centre becomes operational at Sondekoppa Village, Tavarekere, Bengaluru North. The copy of the 35 temporary detention centres with proper address is produced,” the affidavit states.
Interestingly, Bommai had himself announced in the first week of October that the detention centre was being readied, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be implemented in the state. He is now changing tack, “In qualified terms, it is not a detention centre…there is no purpose, per se, to detain someone on the issue of citizenship. I have no information about the facility being operational yet.”
It must be noted that the state government had submitted to the Centre, locations of the 35 temporary detention centres, and said th at illegal migrants who had been granted bail would be kept in the centres till the one at Sondekoppa was ready. “All the 35 temporary detention centers, including Bengaluru city, will be equipped with basic facilities such as bedrooms, bathrooms, water and electricity, driving water facility, medical facility, food and sufficient police protection as per the requirement in each of the temporary detention centers, till such time they are shifted to permanent detention center at Sondekoppa or they are deported to their country,” the affidavit said.
The minister claimed he has no information about the centre’s activities. “Please check with the social welfare department. I have no information about it being started. If it is operational, then people should have been there,” he said. However, senior police officials told TNIE that Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao has visited the centre recently, and also done a recce on whether it can be operational soon.
“The date given to us by our seniors is January 1. We are getting everything ready, including the kitchen. A warden has been appointed,” said an official.
Asked about this, Deputy Chief Minister and social welfare minister Govind Karjol said, “We were entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of people who will be lodged here, irrespective of which country they belong to. The department will provide food, clothes and accommodation and other facilities till they depart. I don’t know anything about what the home minister is saying.”
However, a social welfare ministry source said that 30 people are likely to be lodged at the centre soon, and they “might be sending the first 10 to 15 from January 1”. A senior advocate said the state government cannot “lie so blatantly”. “There are court documents in which they have submitted under oath, saying that a permanent detention centre is ready to be operational. Now, they can’t say it is only for African drug peddlers. They will have to explain it to court once bail petitions of these people under the Foreign Regional Registration Act come up for hearing,” he said.
