Guwahati: After more than a year-and-a-half in captivity, Assam legislator Akhil Gogoi walked free Thursday as a special NIA court cleared him of all charges under the terror law, UAPA. He had been in custody for his alleged role in the violent anti-CAA stir in the state in December 2019.
Gogoi, an Independent MLA from Sivasagar constituency, was released after the special NIA court sent the release order to the Guwahati Central Jail. He walked out of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, where he was being treated for various ailments.
Special judge Pranjal Das said Gogoi’s speeches and statements do not make out any offence of conspiracy, abetment, advise, advocacy of a terrorist act under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
At least 13 cases were filed against him in connection with the CAA protests.
The court, while dismissing all UAPA and also sedition charges against Gogoi, observed that from his speeches available on record, he “cannot be charged with any incitement to violence, there are also no materials to link him with vandalism and damage to property that took place; rather he is exhorting people not to indulge in violence and seems to be doing so fervently”.
The court said ordinary bandhs, blockades, shutdowns as part of protests, unaccompanied by incitement to violence could not come within the ambit of “threatening the economic security of India”. It observed “the said expression” has a much graver connotation.
Read the full judgment here: