Bengaluru: The Assam government on July 30 invoked the National Security Act against land rights activist Pranab Doley, a day after a local sessions court granted him bail. Doley, therefore, will not yet be released from jail. On July 29, the Golaghat sessions court had granted bail to four land rights activists including Doley. Doley has actively opposed the upcoming five star luxury hotel Hyatt near Kaziranga National Park in Assam, and had been arrested on July 13 in connection to a protest related to this. NSA against land rights activist On July 30, the Assam government imposed the NSA on Doley under Section 3(2) of the Act, as per the order accessed by The Wire. The Section empowers the union government or any state government to place a person under preventive detention to prevent actions prejudicial to state security, public order, or to maintain essential community supplies and services in the state.The order lists several reasons for the detention including a series of criminal cases filed against Doley over the past decade, and that these were “acted in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order” and included assaults on public servants, rioting, organised acts of violence and more. It also said that “it appeared” that Doley had indulged in “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources”. However, this and several other allegations had already been taken into consideration by the sessions court that had granted Doley bail on July 29.Sources aware of the development told The Wire on July 31 that the move by the Assam government to impose the NSA on Doley was deliberate and of malafide intent, aimed at preventing his release from custody – despite a sessions court already granting him bail a day before. However, release had not been possible on the same day because the copy of the order was made available only on July 31.Doley had been arrested on July 13 in connection with a protest near Kaziranga on June 28, and had been booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita including those dealing with criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, criminal trespass, rioting and obstructing public servants from carrying out their duties.No evidence to substantiate police claimsPer Doley’s July 29 bail order accessed by The Wire, police had claimed that Doley and more than 50 other people had gathered at Hatikhuli in Kohora near Kaziranga National Park in Golaghat district on June 28, to conduct a meeting about an “ongoing government project” in Ingleng Pathar. Following the meeting, police accused them of trespassing into the ATDC Hyatt project area armed with weapons including machetes and “assaulting” police personnel. The allegations made by the state government are that Doley played a “key role in planning and instigating the violent attack on the police under the guise of a protest”, and that he was one of the “masterminds of the riot”. It also alleged that Doley had received “substantial unaccounted funds from suspicious domestic and foreign sources”, that he was at risk of fleeing the country soon, and that he had collected “large sums” of money from people in land acquisition disputes across Bokakhat, Golaghat and Guwahati districts. However, the sessions court in its order dated July 29 ruled that the evidence that the police had presented (including videos of the incident on June 28) did not substantiate the allegations that the protestors had directly attacked on-duty police personnel at the location, used deadly weapons on the police officers, or outraged the modesty of female police personnel as the police claimed. Moreover, during an investigation no “deadly weapons” had been retrieved from the site either, the court had noted. While Doley had traveled to several countries as an environmental activist and may have received money for these travels, nothing was hidden and therefore not a concern, the court had ruled. Additionally, since Doley had been in custody for seven days after the arrest, the question of him fleeing the country did not arise, it also noted. The court had therefore permitted bail against a surety of Rs. 20,000. Also read: ‘If You Want to Build a Five-Star Hotel, Build It on Your Own Land’: Residents Oppose Kaziranga Hotel Project‘Listen, do not suppress’ Additional Sessions Judge N.M. Abdullah Ahmed had said in his bail order on July 29 that it appeared that the present dispute had risen from “a deep-rooted anxiety regarding environmental degradation and its impact on the socio-cultural fabric” of local communities.“In matters where ecological preservation intersects with indigenous survival, the standard apparatus of criminal law cannot be used to suppress local anxieties. True public order is achieved not by silencing the affected, but by listening to them,” he noted.He added that disputes of this nature require “participatory environmental governance” and that the Court expected that the “underlying grievance” would be addressed “through structured, peaceful community dialogue involving all stakeholders, rather than adversarial confrontation”. Structural inequalities often prevent local communities from negotiating on equal terms with corporate or state entities, the judge noted.“In such a scenario, treating the activists or community leaders as ‘external disruptive element’ [sic] will not yield any fruitful result in the long run and hence, including the social activists and community leaders in the dialogue process would ensure fairness and balance in the power dynamics for a sustainable solution.”With inputs from Kazi Sharowar Hussain.