Court cancels freedom fighter’s pension of octogenarian

The Gauhati High Court has barred an octogenarian from getting the freedom fighter’s pension due to lack of documents to prove his imprisonment during the independence struggle, an official said here Saturday.

The court found that octogenarian Anil Krishna Sarkar did not have certificates to prove that he was a freedom fighter and cancelled the pension that he had been drawing since 1975.

‘The Agartala bench of the high court Friday revoked the recognition and the freedom fighter’s pension of Anil Krishna Sarkar as he could not submit proper documents in support of his claim as freedom fighter,’ the central government’s Assistant Solicitor General Pijush Kanti Biswas told.

The court took this decision following a complaint against Sarkar.

In Tripura, a freedom fighter gets a pension of Rs.14,000 from the central government and Rs.500 from the state government.

Biswas said as per the guidelines of the central government any person claiming to be a freedom fighter has to submit a certificate of a co-prisoner or the jail authorities where he/she was lodged during the independence struggle.

‘Sarkar claimed that he was lodged in Comilla jail of the then East Pakistan now Bangladesh as a freedom fighter for nine months between 1942-43, but he could not submit the certificate of a co-prisoner or the jail authorities,’ Biswas said.

‘He only submitted certificates from a sub-divisional magistrate, of Sadar sub-division of Tripura, and a local legislator,’ Biswas said.