Guwahati, January 10 (IANS): Assam Police has filed a case of sedition against Sahitya Akademi awardee Assamese litterateur Hiren Gohain, RTI activist Akhil Gogoi and a senior journalist regarding speeches made by them against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, informed sources said on Thursday.
The meeting where they spoke was held in Guwahati on January 7.
Although the police refused to name anyone, it is learnt that they are looking at the speeches made by Gohain, Mahanta and Gogoi, the sources said.
January 7 was observed as a "black day" by different organisations in Assam to denounce the Bill which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to six minority groups from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The move has triggered a wave of protests in the northeast.
Gohain was reported to have said that if the government did not pay heed to the demands of civil society groups against the Bill, it could trigger demands for sovereignty or an independent Assam.
Guwahati Police Commissioner Deepak Kumar said a case has been registered against some speakers at the meeting "as there are reports that the speakers had made some statements which needs to be investigated.
"A case has been registered under sections 120B/121/123/124A (sedition) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code)."
The police chief refused to name anyone against whom the case has been registered and said it had been filed against the speakers.
"I came to know that a case of sedition has been registered against me. The speech I delivered did not appear in the media in full. Only some distorted lines of my speech were published in the media," said Gohain.
Meanwhile, the police move has drawn widespread flak.
"By registering sedition case against Gohain, the government has misused its power. It is sheer misuse of power. One cannot stop the movement against the Bill by slapping a sedition case," said All Assam Students Union (AASU) Adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya.
Tripura orders magisterial probe into police firing on tribal youths
The BJP-led Tripura government on Thursday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the police firing on Tuesday injuring six tribal youths, agitating against the controversial Bill.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said West Tripura District Magistrate Sandeep Mahatme would inquire into the January 8 incidents and submit a report "within the shortest possible time."
"After getting the report, the government would take appropriate steps and the guilty would not be spared," Deb told the media before leaving for New Delhi to attend the national council meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Deb, who also holds the home portfolio, said the state government would bear the expenditure of the treatment of the injured youths.
Opposition Congress, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) strongly condemned the police firing and demanded a probe.
Ruling BJP's partner Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) has demanded a judicial probe into the incident by a sitting High Court judge.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, accused the CPI-M and other opposition parties of provoking the agitators.
Demanding a CBI probe and resignation of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Tripura Student Federation (TSF) General Secretary Sunil Debbarma said the police had opened fire without any provocation.