An umbrella organisation representing 14 Assamese Bengali societies on Monday demanded a CBI inquiry into alleged trading of legacy data during the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

The Bengali Joint Coordination Committee, Asom, also organised a protest at Last Gate here and submitted a memorandum to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal with the demand citing NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela’s statement on the issue.

“The honourable Supreme Court is aware of the statement made by the state coordinator for NRC, Assam, that the legacy was made a commodity in the process of NRC which was purchased and sold. It means that illegal migrants included their names in the NRC. Such legacies/family trees were duly verified by senior officials of the NRC and their connivance cannot be ruled out,” said the memorandum.

“Considering the magnitude of the crime, the entire investigation into legacy-trading should be handed over to the CBI to book the culprit(s), including government officials, if any,” it said.

The committee has been claiming that because of “irregularities” and “malpractices” committed in the NRC update process, names of over 15 lakh genuine Indian citizens were not included in the complete draft of the NRC which was published on July 30.

The committee alleged the officials engaged in the NRC update had flouted norms and procedures in the absence of any monitoring and supervision despite a Supreme Court’s order.

On July 21, 2015, the apex court had directed the formation of a committee with three judges to monitor the NRC update process.

The committee said before publication of the final NRC, a supplementary draft list should be published.