Assam jailer suspended after visitors click photos with sedition accused Akhil Gogoi
Akhil Gogoi was arrested under National Security Act on September 13.
A jailer in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district has been suspended for letting leaders from the opposition Congress party click photographs with RTI activist turned peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who is in prison on charges of sedition, earlier this month.
A statement issued by R Sarma, the state inspector general of prisons, on Thursday evening said Arup Kumar Patangia, the jailor of Dibrugarh’s central jail was suspended for letting visitors click photos with Gogoi on November 1.
The Dibrugarh deputy commissioner permitted Congress MLAs Debabrata Saikia and Rupjyoti Kurmi to meet Gogoi in jail. Sakia is the leader of the opposition in the 126-member Assamassembly.
The MLAs spent about 45 minutes with Gogoi, who was arrested under National Security Act on September 13, “visited the inner premises of the jail and also clicked photographs of themselves” along with the prisoner.
“Jail being an out-of-bounds area where unauthorised entry of any persons is banned by Rule 26 of the Assam Jail Manual, the question of clicking of a photograph inside the jail by any such person does not arise,” Sarma said.
This, he pointed out, is a grave lapse on the part of the jail authorities.
Patangia was placed on suspension since November 6 on the basis of a report submitted by the Dibrugarh deputy commissioner.
Action is also being taken against Bikash Bijoy Das, superintendent of the jail, the inspector general of prisons said.