Akhil Gogoi calls NIA ‘a joke’; claims it tried to recruit him for BJP, RSS

GUWAHATI: Akhil Gogoi, following his release from prison, has re-launched his attacks on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly putting him under pressure to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The peasant leader, branding the NIA as a "joke" in a recent interview with NDTV, said that when he was in prison, he was urged to join the saffron party by NIA’s agents.

"First time they tried to recruit me in BJP and next time they tried to recruit me in RSS. When I refused to join the BJP and RSS, they tortured me. They tortured me mentally,

Gogoi further stated that he told the judge overlooking the case that the NIA is “totally biased” and were asking him only political questions and were not asking him case-related questions.

“In Assam, everybody knows that I am not a Maoist. Every Assamese person knows that -- I am just an activist, an andolankari.”

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Asked if he was "worried" if he would never be able to come out, Gogoi said that at one point the NIA tried coming at him with another charge registered in the Basistha police station in Guwahati city, but the Court did not register the charge and he was let go.

Gogoi, who has served 567 days in prison for his role in the anti-CAA agitation in Assam, said the investigative agency wanted to connect him to a 2013 case but was unable to because the court verdict was already out.

"Even on Thursday, the NIA wanted to slap a fresh case but by the time they reached the court with the appeal, the verdict was already out," he said.

The Raijor Dal chief was arrested on December 12, 2019, from Jorhat, at the height of the anti-CAA protests in Assam, as a "preventive measure."

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