GUWAHATI: Arrested Assam RTI activist Akhil Gogoi alleged he was subjected to “torture” in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“I am being tortured. I appeal to the people to not suspend the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) but continue them,” he told journalists while being produced in a court of the NIA in Guwahati on Tuesday.
He was brought to the city in a flight from Jorhat for production in the NIA court. The court remanded him in ten days’ NIA custody.
The RTI activist, who is also a leader of peasants’ body Krishak Mukti Sangram Samitee, was charged with sedition, intention to cause riot against national integration, punishment for criminal conspiracy and unlawful association under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Gogoi was arrested by the police on Thursday from Jorhat. Two days later, he was handed over to the NIA in a case registered against him earlier by the Chandmari police station in Guwahati. The case pertains to his alleged link with the CPI Maoists.
The protestors of CAA said by arresting Gogoi, the government was trying to muzzle the voices of protest. They demanded his immediate release.
Prior to the violent incidents in Guwahati and elsewhere in Assam surrounding the CAA, Gogoi was spearheading the protests. He had then appealed to people to come out of their houses and stage the protests. He had told them that 1.9 crore “Hindu Bangladeshis” would come to Assam and this would pose a grave threat to the state’s land, language, culture among others.