GUWAHATI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sent summons to Professor Arupjyoti Saikia of IIT, Guwahati, again, asking him to appear before it on February 7.
The 52-year-old has been questioned thrice since last Saturday by sleuths of the NIA. He was not available for comments but his legal counsel Santanu Borthakur said the summons were pertaining to a case in which RTI activist and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader Akhil Gogoi was arrested by the NIA.
“They (NIA) called him (Saikia) as a witness in the case after issuing a notice to him under 160 of the CrPC,” Borthakur told this newspaper.
“Neither he has anything to do with the organizational activities of the KMSS nor was he aware of the incidents of violence that have taken place on December 11 and 12 in Guwahati (in connection with Citizenship (Amendment) Act),” Borthakur added.
Saikia is a professor of history in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT, Guwahati. He has research interest in economic, environmental and political history of modern Assam and is the author of some books.
Opposition Congress expressed deep concern over the relentless grilling of the historian of repute. Earlier, a group of 42 scholars and academicians, including Ramachandra Guha, had urged the NIA to treat Saikia “with the dignity and respect he deserves, and allow him to continue his professional work unimpeded.”
Meanwhile, the NIA has also summoned Pranjal Kalita, a leader of Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti (SMSS), which is the students’ wing of the KMSS. The reason behind the summons was not known.
Akhil Gogoi was arrested by the police in December following the CAA-related violence and later, handed over to the NIA in a case, registered with the Chandmari police station in Guwahati, pertaining to his alleged linkage with the CPI (Maoist).