GUWAHATI: In a major relief for Assam activist Pranab Doley, the Gauhati High Court on Friday quashed his detention under the National Security Act (NSA).
A division bench, comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Susmita Phukan Khaund, declared the preventive detention of the activist illegal. A copy of the judgment was not immediately available.
Doley, 40, was arrested on July 12 after he had joined a protest against a proposed luxury hotel near the Kaziranga National Park. The police had accused him of trespassing into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and a nearby hotel project during the protest.
A local court in Golaghat had on July 29 granted him bail, observing that the statements of the key witnesses had been already recorded by the police, and there was no possibility of the activist tampering with evidence.
However, the state government invoked NSA the next day, preventing his release. The government alleged that he had engaged in suspicious foreign transactions involving funds from doubtful sources, in contravention of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
His arrest sparked protests. Speaking during a protest in September, Congress leader Debabrata Saikia had accused the government of undermining the Constitution and using the police and the administration to intimidate the public.
He accused the administration of stripping citizens of their fundamental rights. He said standing up for the rights of the working class and defending one’s ancestral land could never be construed as treason.
The Congress on Friday said the BJP government’s attempt to silence voices, fighting for land rights through the “draconian” NSA, stood exposed.
“Land rights activist Pranab Doley was detained for 117 days for opposing the proposed luxury hotel project near Kaziranga and defending the rights of indigenous communities. The Gauhati High Court has now quashed his detention order, declaring it illegal. This decision is a reminder that dissent and democratic protest cannot be criminalised,” Assam Congress posted on X.
“No government can trample upon constitutional freedoms to protect powerful commercial interests. The fight for indigenous land rights, dignity and justice must go on,” it further wrote.
