Guwahati: The National Investigation Agency proposed a supplementary chargesheet in the only pending UAPA and sedition case against Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi, days after he was acquitted in another case. Reacting to the latest development, Mr Gogoi, who has been in jail since December 2019, said the chargesheet was a conspiracy to keep him in jail.
"The NIA had filed a supplementary chargesheet last Tuesday along with the existing chargesheet that was filed in December 2019. The new chargesheet is based on a protected witness. There were two other protected witnesses in this case," Krishna Gogoi, Akhil Gogoi's lawyer, said yesterday.
A protected witness is the one whose details aren't revealed or listed to the court until they are presented.
Akhil Gogoi, in a letter written in Assamese from jail, said, "The protected witness in his recorded statement to the court has said that I am involved in supari (areca nut) syndicate, cow smuggling syndicate and honey trapping businessmen to extort money, whereas I was initially arrested for alleged terrorist activities. So, as part of their conspiracy, I have now become a mafia from a terrorist. These are nothing but conspiracies to keep me behind bars."
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