A division bench of the Gauhati High Court on Friday, November 6, quashed the detention, under the National Security Act (NSA) of activist Pranab Doley, announced advocate Dipesh Agrawala, one of the lawyers who represented him. The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.
A copy of the judgement is not yet available.
Doley was arrested on July 12, days after he took part in a protest against a hotel project at Ingle Pathar, a village adjoining the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Predictably, the police had alleged that he “unlawfully trespassed into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and thereafter trespassed into the nearby ATDC [Assam Tourism Development Corporation] Hyatt project at Ingle Pathar with deadly weapons” during the protest. Doley, is the convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC) and a leading face of the agitation against a proposed luxury hotel project near Kaziranga National Park.
On July 29, a sessions court in Golaghat granted bail to Doley, stating that the investigating officer had already recorded the statements of key witnesses and that there was no possibility of the accused concealing or tampering with the evidence.
However, the very next day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state detained Doley under the National Security Act, alleging that he had carried out “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources” in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. Shockingly, this means that he was not released from jail, despite the bail order.
In August, the Congress had alleged that the Assam government invoking the Act against Doley was part of a “growing pattern” of the BJP “weaponising extraordinary laws to silence dissent”. Party leader Jairam Ramesh had described the state government’s allegations against Doley as “vague and speculative”.
Citing detentions of at least two other persons under the Act in Uttar Pradesh in April, the Opposition MP claimed that this was a familiar script followed by the Narendra Modi government.
At the time of the arrest itself, three organisations have issued strongly worded statements condemning the arrest of prominent Assam land rights activist Pranab Doley, describing the police action as an attempt to suppress democratic dissent and intimidate communities resisting corporate-backed projects in and around Kaziranga. In separate statements released on July 12, the Forum for Social Harmony, the Asom Mojuri Shramik Union (AMSU) and All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), and the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) alleged that Doley’s arrest is part of an intensifying pattern of criminalising indigenous rights defenders, farmers and people’s movements challenging land acquisition, displacement and the expansion of corporate interests in ecologically sensitive areas. While each statement approaches the issue from a distinct perspective, all three organisations unequivocally demand Doley’s immediate and unconditional release, withdrawal of what they describe as false and politically motivated criminal cases, and an end to the alleged use of police powers to stifle democratic protest.
The statements were issued hours after the Assam Police detained Doley in Guwahati on July 12 in connection with a criminal case registered at Bokakhat Police Station.
Forum for Social Harmony calls arrest an attack on democratic rights
The Forum for Social Harmony characterised Doley’s arrest as “an attack on democratic rights”, alleging that the Assam government had deployed the police machinery to suppress a legitimate people’s movement centred on land rights, livelihood protection and environmental justice. The organisation said the arrest was deeply alarming because it followed a prolonged and peaceful campaign by local farmers, indigenous communities and several people’s organisations opposing the proposed luxury hotel project at Engle (Inglay) Pathar in Kaziranga.
According to the Forum, the government’s response has not been to engage with the concerns raised by affected communities but to repeatedly invoke criminal law against movement leaders. It alleged that the filing of one criminal case after another reflects a “dangerous trend” of shrinking democratic space, where constitutionally protected rights to dissent and freedom of expression are increasingly curtailed through criminal prosecution and police action.
Related:
‘Attack on democratic rights’: Rights groups denounce Pranab Doley’s arrest