Assam activist Pranab Doley, who has been opposing a proposed luxury hotel near Kaziranga National Park, was arrested on Sunday in connection with a June 28 protest against the project in Golaghat district.

Doley has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, criminal trespass, rioting, obstructing public servants from carrying out their duties and criminal intimidation.

The first information report was registered on the basis of a complaint by Sub-Inspector Sujib Basumatary, in-charge of the Kohora outpost under the Bokakhat police station in Golaghat district. It names 16 persons, including Doley, and around 50 unidentified persons.

The FIR alleged that Doley was the “mastermind” behind an “unlawful assembly” at Rongajan field in Kohora on June 28. Kohora is the main entry point to Kaziranga National Park.

The proposed hotel is to come up at Ingleng Pathar near the national park, where about 45 farming families depend on a 19-acre plot. Of this, 9.9 acres have been earmarked for the project. Although the land has been classified as government land, the families have been paying land revenue on it for more than a decade, Mongabay reported.

Doley has said that the project would infringe on the rights of local communities and block animal corridors, The Hindu reported.

In the FIR, the police alleged that at about 2.30 pm on June 28, the protesters entered the proposed hotel site. They were allegedly armed with machetes and sharp sticks.

“The unlawful assembly ignored the lawful directions of the police and forcibly entered the premises and started removing the survey ribbons and other demarcation materials installed by the architects [of the hotel],” the FIR said. “They also raised anti-government slogans.”

It added: “The unlawful assembly proceeded towards the cement mixer machine…threatened the construction workers with dire consequences and compelled them to flee from the worksite.”

It also alleged that 12 police personnel were injured in the incident.

“Pranab Doley and others, again instigated the crowd and threatened that they would bring persons from Silchar, Dibrugarh, Sivsagar, Tinsukia and Khumtai,” the FIR said. “If their demands were not fulfilled, they would mobilise tea garden workers from across Assam to launch further agitations like road blocks and paralyse the administrative structure.”

On Sunday, Doley was detained from Guwahati, where he was staying with a friend. He was taken to Golaghat on Sunday night and remanded to seven days of police custody on Monday.

Doley alleged that he was taken into custody without being shown any documents.

“If we can’t raise the voice for the people, what kind of democracy is this?” he told reporters while being escorted to a police vehicle. “No paper has been given to us. I am being kidnapped…Why am I being taken into custody? They don’t allow peaceful democratic protest. The authoritarianism of Himanta Biswa Sarma will not be tolerated.”

Opposition, land rights groups condemn arrest

Assam Congress president and MP Gaurav Gogoi described the arrest as an attempt to silence “any voice critical of the government and turn citizens into mute spectators”.

“The actions of this government only expose the hollowness of the [Bharatiya Janata Party’s] claims of protecting indigenous rights in Assam,” Gogoi said on social media.

Land rights organisation, the Bhumi Adhikar Joutha Sangram Samiti, described Doley’s arrest as “arbitrary” and “unjust”.

It alleged that the Assam Police had targeted Doley for leading the struggle to protect the land rights of Assam’s working people.

It also noted that only a few days earlier, Adit Chandra Rabha, adviser to the Borduar Tea Garden Land Patta Demand Committee and a prominent land rights leader, had also been arrested for his role in defending the land rights of indigenous and working communities.

“Pranab Doley has now been arrested as part of a similar conspiracy,” the land rights group said.

Inputs by Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.