Gaurav Das
More than 30 academics, intellectuals, advocates, senior journalists, writers, activists, advocates, former parliamentarians and others from across India issued a statement on Thursday (April 2) expressing their deep anguish over the incarceration of Assamese peasant leader and activist Akhil Gogoi. They worried about the consequences “for Indian democracy and the callous attitude of Assam state government over the continuous detention of Gogoi”.
The signatories also said that they would write to Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde if Gogoi is not granted bail soon.
Some of the signatories from Assam include intellectual Hiren Gohain, academic Apurba Kumar Baruah, senior journalist and member-elect (Rajya Sabha) Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and senior journalists Adip Phukan and Prashanta Rajguru, and others. From the rest of the country, those who have offered their support for Gogoi include Ashok Vajpeyi, Rajmohan Gandhi, Mrinal Pandey, Yogendra Yadav, Manoranjan Mohanty and others.
The signatories have “deplored” the way norms of natural justice have been “circumvented” to detain Gogoi with one case after another, rendering respective bail orders “ineffective”. On Wednesday (April 1) Gogoi was arrested by the Dibrugarh police from Sivasagar jail, a day after he was granted bail in a ‘shown arrest’ case lodged by the Chabua police station on March 28.
Gogoi was taken away by the Dibrugarh police on a day when he was supposed to attend a hearing in another Chabua police station-related case. All the cases under which Gogoi have been detained or arrested are related to the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests and related violence which rocked Assam in December. All the cases accuse Gogoi of inciting violence against police.
“The recent detention of him began when he organised anti-CAA protests in Assam. He was arrested from Jorhat on December 12, 2019, by police and was then handed over to NIA. The NIA failed to charge sheet him within the mandatory 90 days and therefore the NIA Special Court granted him bail. That was challenged in the Gauhati High Court, but a stay was refused by the High Court. He remained in jail despite the grant of bail because the Sivasagar police rearrested him immediately, in a case registered a year back,” a part of the statement says.
The signatories have also expressed great worry over the Gogoi’s “deteriorating” health conditions and blamed the jail authorities for not giving him better medical treatment. They also blamed the state government for its lackadaisical attitude when Gogoi was at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), saying only junior doctors were present. “We fear that something serious might happen to him, particularly, when the Supreme Court has asked authorities to release even some convicts because of the spread of Coronavirus. The arrests are not innocuous. These are instances of blatant abuse of power by the government of the day. We urge upon the higher judiciary to take Suo motto action on this matter. The government must be prevented from using such tactics to fight political opponents. This is a tactic that breaks all norms of democratic governance,” the statement continues.
