Akhil Gogoi brought to NIA headquarters for interrogation in New Delhi

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) brought peasant leader Akhil Gogoi to Delhi headquarter on Tuesday late at night by the Air Asia flight for an interrogation. Akhil Gogoi is an active leader of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a peasant organisation based in Assam. He was arrested by Assam police on December 12 as preventive measure amid protests against Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and a case was registered against him.

After a police complaint was registered, the case was handed over to the premier probe agency on December 14. The court has sent Gogoi to 10 days NIA custody.

"Akhil Gogoi is in touch with a Maoist group and his arrest is important for conducting a probe. The agency will interrogate him about the links he has with the Maoists," said sources in NIA. 

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Gogoi arrested to avoid  'untoward incident'

Gogoi was arrested on Thursday in Assam's Jorhat district as a preventive measure, amid violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill across the state, officials said. A senior official of the Jorhat administration said that Gogoi was taken into custody to avoid any "untoward incident" in the district, as well as other parts of the state by his supporters.

Gogoi, the adviser of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), had earlier in the day staged a sit-in outside the Jorhat Deputy Commissioner's office.

"There were around 3,000 people during the day. We did not arrest him then to avoid repercussions. After he left the scene, our teams went to arrest him. It is a preventive arrest," the official quoted above said. Gogoi was trying to evade arrest and the teams had to search for him for a while before taking him into custody from an advocate's residence, the official said.

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(with input from agencies)