Photo Courtesy: nenews
Guwahati: Bokakhat District Court remanded indigenous rights activist Pranab Doley to seven days of police custody on Monday. Police arrested the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee convenor at a rental home in Guwahati’s Sundarpur area. He was taken into custody on July 12 following a case registered at Bokakhat Police Station on June 29.
Police allege Doley trespassed onto the proposed Tea Tribes Museum site and the nearby ATDC Hyatt project at Ingle Pathar while wielding deadly weapons. The FIR claims he obstructed construction, threatened workers, damaged property, and assaulted officers. He faces charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including criminal conspiracy, rioting, and criminal trespass.
Doley denied the allegations while being moved into a police vehicle. "The police picked me up without giving any reason or prior notice. If we cannot raise even a single voice for the people, what kind of democracy is this? The police have kidnapped me like a goon. Himanta Biswa Sarma’s dictatorship will not work," he said.
Doley leads the campaign against transferring Hatikhuli land to the Assam Tourism Development Corporation for a five-star hotel. Farmers claim the land supports wildlife and local livelihoods. Twenty Adivasi families currently have a petition pending before the Gauhati High Court challenging the project. Critics argue the arrest aims to silence opposition to government land policies.
The arrest triggered chaos in the Assam Legislative Assembly. Raijor Dal MLAs Akhil Gogoi and Mehboob Mukhtar walked out of the session in protest. Opposition leaders from the Congress party and various rights groups joined the call for his release. The University of Arizona’s Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program also condemned the detention. They urged the Indian government to provide Doley with legal counsel and medical care immediately.
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