Jairam Ramesh alleged the preventive detention law was used to bypass a court’s bail order, while rights group CASR termed the move an attack on democratic dissent
Guwahati: The Congress criticised the Assam government for detaining indigenous land rights activist Pranab Doley under the National Security Act (NSA), alleging that the BJP was using preventive detention laws to suppress dissent.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the NSA was invoked on July 30, a day after a Golaghat sessions court granted Doley bail in a case linked to protests against a proposed five-star hotel near Kaziranga National Park.
Calling it a “blatant misuse of preventive detention laws”, Ramesh alleged the detention order relied on “vague and speculative allegations”, including claims of “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources”.
Quoting the July 29 bail order, he said the court had observed that “where ecological preservation intersects with indigenous survival, criminal law cannot be used to suppress legitimate local anxieties.” He alleged the government invoked the NSA despite the court’s observations and to circumvent the bail order.
Meanwhile, the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) also condemned the detention, alleging that the NSA was being used to silence opposition to land acquisition and development projects affecting indigenous communities.
The Assam government has maintained that Doley’s detention under Section 3(2) of the NSA was based on intelligence inputs indicating his activities were prejudicial to public order and the security of the state.
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