Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: Congress leaders are lashing out at the Assam government for detaining indigenous rights activist Pranab Doley under the National Security Act. The state invoked the law on July 30, just one day after a district court granted him bail. Doley remains behind bars at the Golaghat district jail.
Doley faces accusations of engaging in suspicious foreign transactions. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh called the move a blatant misuse of power meant to silence opposition. He argued that the state is weaponizing extraordinary laws to defeat court orders. The sessions court previously noted that criminal law should not suppress local anxieties regarding land and ecology.
The activist has led protests since 2022 against a planned five-star hotel near Kaziranga National Park. Residents claim the project involves forced land acquisition. "NSA is meant for grave threats to India's security, not to cage social activists," Gaurav Gogoi said in a post on X.
Gogoi, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president, pointed to a pattern of government intolerance. He cited Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s earlier threats to use the NSA against artists involved in a Zubeen Garg mural. Doley was initially arrested in Guwahati on July 12 and spent weeks in jail before his brief bail order. Now, he stays in custody under Section 3(2) of the 1980 act despite the judicial intervention.
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