Students’ organisations in Assam have slammed the arrest of anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) activist and Gauhati University student Dipjyoti Gogoi for posting on social media a fake flood-related fund raising appeal in the name of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
But anti-CAA groups claimed he was caught for allegedly reciting an anti-government poem on social media. The poem had references to peasant leader and anti-CAA activist Akhil Gogoi.
Friends and members of Mr. Gogoi’s family in eastern Assam’s Demow said he was whisked away in a white vehicle around 8 p.m. on July 20. The way he went “missing” for some time was likened to the case of Aligarh Muslim University Sharjeel Usmani in Uttar Pradesh.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘Fake information’
“The Assam police apprehended Dipjyoti Gogoi for creating fake information. A case has been registered under the Crime Branch police station,” a statement from the State government said on July 21. It added that he had been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
Gauhati University organisations and Students’ Federation of India slammed Mr. Gogoi’s arrest and said the BJP-led State government was indulging in witch-hunting against all those who have taken part in the anti-CAA movement on one pretext or the other.
ADVERTISEMENT