Akhil Gogoi remanded in judicial custody for 10 days
GUWAHATI: A special NIA court here Thursday remanded peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who had been arrested by the agency, to judicial custody for 14 days.
The special court also turned down NIA’S plea to extend his custody for 10 days.
He was a r r e s t e d b y t he National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Jorhat on December 12 when large scale protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act was rocking Assam under the stringent Unlawful Actvities (Prevention) Act.
Earlier on Thursday, The NIA searched t he residence of arrested RTI activist Akhil Gogoi here, and seized several documents and a laptop computer, officials said. The activist, who advises various farmer organisations, was arrested when Assam was witnessing widespread protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Officials searched Gogoi’s residence in Nizarapara area of Guwahati and also seized copies of his PAN card, an SBI debit card, an Electoral Photo Identity Card and a bank passbook. After the threehour search that began at 7 am had concluded, Gogoi’s wife Gitashree Tamuly showed a list of the seized items to reporters.
A certificate of registration by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, a letter from Superintending Archaeologist of ASI Milan Kumar Chauley, files marked “Credit-deposit ratio KMSS File Misc”, “Jail 2015”, “Jail Diary 2014” and “NHPC LSHEP 2015” featured in the list. “They (NIA) wanted to see the files in our house and selectively took some of them. I asked them to give me copies of the seized files but they declined. I was also asked if Akhil had met militants when he was jailed earlier,” Tamuly said.
The NIA team also asked for the documents relating to the
KMSS orchid environment park in Kaziranga but she told them she had no information about them, Tamuly said.
The KMSS office in Gandhibasti area of the city was also raided and nine books, including one on the life of China’s revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, Marxism, and KMSS leaflets were seized, KMSS president Raju Bora said.
The NIA has accused Gogoi of being involved in “terror activities” and using the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to promote enmity among different groups that was against national integration.