Guwahati, July 1: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has introduced a supplementary chargesheet based on another “protected witness” to the Chandmari Police Station case, the only pending NIA case against Assam’s jailed legislator Akhil Gogoi, days after he was discharged of the other NIA case in Chabua police station.
Reacting to the development, the only independent legislator in Assam Assembly from Sibasagar, Akhil, who had been in jail since December 2019, said it is a conspiracy to keep him behind the bars for a longer period of time.
The NIA had taken over two cases — Chandmari and Chabua police station — in December 2019 regarding Gogoi’s involvement in the violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 that happened across the state in December 2019 and January 2020 and slapped charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act along with sedition and other IPC charges.
Akhil’s lawyer Krishna Gogoi said, “The NIA had filed a supplementary chargesheet last Tuesday along with the existing chargesheet that was filed in December 2019. The new chargesheet is based on a protected witness. There were two other protected witnesses in this case.”
A protected witness is one whose details aren’t revealed or listed to the Court until they are presented.
Krishna said the move came a day before the Court was supposed to hold a hearing regarding the Chandmari case that has further delayed the Court’s proceedings.
“The first hearing was done on June 24 along with Chabua case and the next was supposed to be on June 30. But, yesterday, NIA introduced the supplement chargesheet which has further delayed the court’s proceedings,” he said.
Akhil Gogoi, on the other hand, in a letter written from jail in Assamese said, “The protected witness in his recorded statement to the court has said that I am involved in supari (areca nut) syndicate, cow smuggling syndicate and honey trapping businessmen to extort money whereas I was initially arrested for alleged terrorist activities. So, as part of their untrue conspiracy, I have now become a syndicate mafia from a terrorist. These are nothing but conspiracies to keep me behind bars.”
Akhil was on June 24 discharged of all charges, including UAPA and IPC sections, in the Chabua police station case by an NIA court in Guwahati for lack of “substantial materials” against him.
During CAA-protests, Gogoi had led a group of over 61 organisations to protest against the Act. At Chabua on December 9, Gogoi had organised a protest function during which a crowd of about 6,000 people had gathered and went unruly by causing economic blockade and pelted stones in which a police official was injured, following which the suo moto case was lodged at Chabua Police Station.
According to the Chandmari case that is pending against him, Gogoi has been charged under various charges including Sections 120B, 124A, 153B IPC and Sections 18 and 39 of the UAPA.
