Nearly five years after an NIA court cleared Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi and three others of charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and multiple sections of the IPC for their alleged involvement in a 2019 anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest in Chabua, the Gauhati High Court on Monday directed that the case be transferred to a regular court for framing charges.

The case against Gogoi, the president of the Raijor Dal, and others was registered at Chabua police station in Dibrugarh district in December 2019. It is one of two cases filed against him during the violent anti-CAA protests. The cases had been taken over by the NIA.

Gogoi and the three others were arrested in connection with this case in April and May 2020, and the NIA had submitted a chargesheet before the Special Judge, NIA, Guwahati in June 2020 against all four under Section 16 of the UAPA and sections of the IPC pertaining to criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, causing grievous hurt using dangerous weapons, attempt to murder, assault against a public servant and mischief causing to damage to property.

However, in June 2021, the NIA court discharged Gogoi and two others of all the charges. One of the accused, Bhaskarjit Phukan, was discharged of all charges except those under sections 144 and 148 of the IPC, which pertain to unlawful assembly and rioting with a deadly weapon.

The Gauhati High Court bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi and Justice Mridul Kumar Kalita was hearing an appeal by the NIA against the special court’s order.

After hearing both sides, the bench said that it concurs with the finding of the trial court that the materials on record, such as a speech Gogoi had delivered during a protest and telephonic conversation between the accused and other people, “do not disclose the existence of ingredients necessary to constitute an offence under Section 16 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.” However, it ruled that materials on record, including statements by seven protected witnesses, “are sufficient to frame charges against the respondents under the provisions of Indian Penal Code with which they have been chargesheeted”, and that “the trial court had erred in discharging the respondents of the offences alleged against them” under the IPC.

“As the Court of learned Special Judge, NIA, does not have any jurisdiction to try the offences under the Indian Penal Code with which the respondents have been charge-sheeted, it will, therefore, transfer the aforesaid case… to the regular court having jurisdiction… Upon such transfer, the Court to which the case is transferred shall hear both sides on the question of framing of charges under Indian Penal Code and thereafter proceed accordingly in light of the observations made by us in the instant judgment,” the order said.

In the other case against Gogoi in the Chandmari police station, an NIA court had cleared him of all charges, but was appealed by the NIA in the Gauhati High Court, which allowed the framing of charges in the case. This resulted in an NIA court framing charges against him and three others in 2024, including under sections of the UAPA.

Gogoi’s legal representative, Santanu Borthakur, said, “After the framing of charges in the other case, we have challenged the matter in the Gauhati High Court, and that is pending. The framing of charges in this case will now take place in a regular court in Dibrugarh.”