New Delhi: Hours after claiming Rohingya Muslims are "serious threat to national security", the Ministry of Home Affairs said its "draft" affidavit was made public "by mistake" and that it would submit a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court.
CNN-News18 was first to access the affidavit signed on September 11 by Ravi Sunder, Deputy Secretary in the Foreigners' Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which was even served upon a lawyer and was ready to be filed in the Court.
Photograph of a copy of the affidavit..
Soon after CNN-News18 broke the story, the government decided to put the affidavit on hold for "correction".
The lawyer, who was sent a copy of the affidavit, was also informed that “the affidavit has been served (to him) by mistake”.
"Before the affidavit is finalised reflecting the stand of the central government after consideration of all concerned departments, an un-finalised copy is served inadvertently," read the letter sent to the lawyer concerned.
But sources have confirmed that the stand of the government regarding deportation of Rohingya Muslims would remain unchanged.
"There is no rethink or review of the position by the government. They will have to be deported," said a source.
He added that the fresh affidavit needs to "fine tune some details, add some more inputs apart from also suggesting some recourse for Rohingyas outside Indian territory".
But the official asserted that there is no question of allowing illegal immigrants to stay on Indian soil.
In its "draft" affidavit, the MHA called Rohingya Muslims as a class vulnerable to be exploited for terrorist activities by ISIS, and told the Supreme Court that they must be deported “in the larger interest of the nation”.
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