NIA Summons IIT-Guwahati Professor for Alleged Role in Anti-CAA Protests

Guwahati, January 1, 2020:

Amid the ongoing protests against the amendment of the Citizenship Act by the BJP-led Government, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned a Professor of the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati for his alleged involvement in protests.

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The Professor, Arupjyoti Saikia, who teaches History at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, has been summoned to the NIA office, reportedly as a witness in the case against peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who is perhaps the first to be booked under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had hinted that a leading academician was orchestrating the protests from behind-the-scenes. Biswa Sarma had also stated that the Government had 'electronic evidence' of an intellectual from a Central Government institution coordinating with anti-CAA agitators.

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The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) saw protests in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur this January, but the protests shifted to Assam when the Government announced that areas protected by the 6th Schedule and the Inner Line Permit (ILP) would be exempted from the purview of the 'CAA'. Later, the protests against the contentious legislation spread to all corners of the country, and the discontent among the masses in regards to the Act is clear to see amid the continuing protests.

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