Four Assam activists belonging to different organizations have been apprehended by police during a midnight raid on Monday in Sivasagar district. According to sources Chatra Mukti Sangram Samiti (CMSS), the student wing of peasants' body KMSS, leader Manas Konwar was picked up from his Simaluguri residence at around 10.30 pm on Monday.
Police also swooped down on the residences of three other leaders at midnight in Sivasagar town and whisked them away.
The police team apprehended Asom Yuba Chatra Sanmilan president Jintu Mech, Raijor Dal leader Padmakant Das and Bir Lachit Sena leader Chitu Baruah from their homes.
While Mech and Das were picked up by a team of Sivasagar police around 11.30 pm, Baruah was detained around 1.30 am.
Sivasagar police have not disclosed the reason behind the arrest of the activists.
Sources, however, said that police picked up the activists fearing protests against chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his insensitive remarks against Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi.
Chief Minister Sarma in his speech in the Assembly on Monday had said that Akhil Gogoi is mentally unfit to attend the Assembly session.
Chief Minister Sarma's "irresponsible" comments on Gogoi sparked massive outrage on social media.
Gogoi, who had won Assembly polls from the Sivasagar constituency, on Friday, took oath as an MLA in the Assam Assembly after a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court allowed him to do so.
Gogoi alleged that the cops had misbehaved with him and that he had been dragged in the assembly session. He also alleged that the police flouted COVID-19 protocols.
Akhil Gogoi, who had contested and won the polls from behind bars and is yet to get bail in multiple cases against him, including sedition charges, was brought to the Assembly under police cover. He had earlier procured a court order to take oath as a first-time MLA.
