By Scroll Staff
The Assam government invoking the National Security Act against activist Pranab Doley was part of a “growing pattern” of the Bharatiya Janata Party “weaponising extraordinary laws to silence dissent”, alleged the Congress on Monday.
The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.
Doley was arrested on July 12, days after he took part in a protest against a hotel project at Ingle Pathar, a village adjoining the Kaziranga National Park.
The police had alleged that he “unlawfully trespassed into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and thereafter trespassed into the nearby ATDC [Assam Tourism Development Corporation] Hyatt project at Ingle Pathar with deadly weapons” during the protest.
On July 29, a sessions court in Golaghat granted bail to Doley, stating that the investigating officer had already recorded the statements of key witnesses and that there was no possibility of the accused concealing or tampering with evidence.
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