ASSAM TIMES POST
Guwahati : Cotton University former General Secretary Pranjal Kalita has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency for interrogation in connection with the violence during the anti-CAA protest in December 2019. Kalita received the notice sent by the NIA under Section 160 CrPC on Wednesday.
The NIA asked him to appear before it on Thursday at 11 am at its Sonapur office in the outskirts of the city for “the purpose of answering certain questions relating to the case” bearing number RC-13/2019/NIA/GUW, dated December 14.
The case related to probing alleged “terrorist activity” by peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who is the Adviser of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS). Along with Gogoi, around half a dozen other KMSS leaders were arrested and are in judicial custody at present. In the same case, the NIA is also interrogating IIT-Guwahati Professor Arupjyoti Saikia and he was quizzed for the third time in four days on Tuesday, while asking him to appear again on Friday.
KMSS Adviser Hussain Md Shahjahan has also been quizzed twice till Tuesday and was asked to reappear on Friday.
Gogoi was arrested on December 12 from Jorhat as a “preventive measure” in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and his colleagues were taken into custody the next day. However, Assam Police on December 13 registered an FIR at Teok police station with FIR No 1688/2019 under sections 120B, 124A, 153A and 153B of the IPC along with 18 and 19 of the stringent UA(P)A.
In an abrupt and instant decision, the case was handed over to the NIA the very next day with issuance of an order (No. 11011/62/2019/NIA) by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on December 14 itself.
Addressing a press conference on the violence and the massive protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that Gogoi was handed over to the NIA for his alleged links with terror activities. Sarma had also claimed that individual members of the Congress and KMSS were found to be involved in violence and arson at several places across the state.
On February 3 this year, three persons, including two BJP members, were arrested for allegedly attacking the house of Union Minister of State for Food Processing Rameswar Teli during anti-CAA protest on December 11, when the entire state was reeling under violent protest against the contentious Act.
