NIA Raids Anti-CAA Crusader, RTI Activist Akhil Gogoi's Home in Guwahati

New Delhi: RTI activist, peasant leader and anti-CAA crusader Akhil Gogoi’s house was on Thursday raided and searched by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Gogoi, was arrested by the agency earlier this month, officials said, as per news agency PTI.

The youth leader, who has been spearheading a massive outcry against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam, has been booked under the draconian Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act (UAPA). His custody was to end on Friday.

Officials of the anti-terror force searched Gogoi's residence in Nizarapara area of Guwahati and also seized copies of his PAN card, an SBI debit card, an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and a bank passbook, PTI said.

After the three-hour search that began at 7 am had concluded, Gogoi's wife Gitashree Tamuly showed a list of the seized items to reporters.

A certificate of registration by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, a letter from Superintending Archaeologist of ASI Milan Kumar Chauley, files marked "Credit-Deposit ratio KMSS File Misc", "Jail 2015", "Jail Diary 2014" and "NHPC LSHEP 2015" featured in the list.

"They (NIA) wanted to see the files in our house and selectively took some of them. I asked them to give me copies of the seized files but they declined. I was also asked if Akhil had met militants when he was jailed earlier," Tamuly said.

According to an interview with news website Scroll-in, Gogoi has complained of “extreme” torture, both physical and mental. 

“The sight of him being presented in the court with handcuffs and thick ropes with use of visible force on him was received with disapproval across the state,” said the report.

Meanwhile, the ailing mother of the youth leader, who heads the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, an organisation devoted to fighting for farmers’ rights, has been on indefinite hunger strike in front of her house in Selenghat, Golaghat district, since December 20, demanding her son’s release from NIA custody. According to reports, her condition is worsening.”

 “I am not well. My son told me he would come soon to take me for a check-up…He has always fought for Assamese people…someone or the government has framed my son. They don’t want him to carry on the protest because the people of the state have united and they fear that they (the government) would soon fall,” Priyada reportedly told local mediapersons, as quoted by The Wire.

Gogoi, a harsh critic of the BJP-RSS, was detained by the Assam Police on December 12 and handed over to NIA. The Sarbanad Sonowal-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has also activated a case registered against him in 2009 by the Congress government.  In 2017 and in September this year, the Sonowal government also charged him with sedition and also alleged that he had links with Maoists. However, both the times, the Gauhati High Court set aside the allegations and released him.

Denying all these allegations and accusing the BJP government of trying to derail the widespread uprising against CAA in the state, Gogoi told Scroll.in that : I have never been with Maoists, am not with them and will never be with them in the future. It’s a ploy to delegitimise the people’s upsurge and derail the movement. This has been done to alienate the progressive elements of the movement and destroy it.”

(With inputs from PTI)