Guwahati, Feb 10: Gauhati High Court has directed a trial court to conduct fresh hearing on framing of charges against Sibsagar MLA Akhil Gogoi, and three others, in a case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for alleged incidents of violence during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in 2019.
The appeal was preferred by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the judgment and order dated July 1, 2021 passed by the Special Judge, NIA, Assam, Guwahati by which all the four accused persons were discharged on the ground that there was no material available on record to frame charges against them.
“On a careful reading of the impugned judgment and order dated July 1, 2021, we are of the considered opinion that the impugned judgment has the trappings of an order of acquittal rather than an order of discharge,” the division bench of Justice Suman Shyam and Justice Malasari Nandi observed.
“As such, the approach of the learned Special Judge, NIA, in our considered opinion, was clearly erroneous in the eye of law, thus having a vitiating effect on the impugned judgment,” the bench said, while remanding back the matter to the NIA court for fresh charge-hearing against all the four accused,:
The High Court further directed the NIA court to conduct “charge-hearing” as expeditiously as possible and said, if necessary, it may conduct hearing on a day-to-day basis. It further directed the parties to appear before the court on February 23.
On the issue of bail, the court observed that if any bail application is moved by Gogoi, the same shall be considered by the trial judge in accordance with law, on its own merit and without being influenced by any observation made in the order.