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Massive locust invasion from Pakistan ruins crops in Gujarat, Centre rushes 11 teams to help

OpIndia Staff
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Massive locust invasion from Pakistan ruins crops in Gujarat, Centre rushes 11 teams to help

Farmers in Gujarat are now worried as they are facing massive locust invasion from Pakistan, the neighbouring country the state shares its border with. It is being believed that this has been the deadliest locust attack in Gujarat since the year 1994.


The locusts, known as tiddis locally arriving from desert areas of Pakistan, descended in and around 20 talukas in the state including, Banaskantha, Mehsana, Kutch, Patan and Sabarkantha districts over the last few days and wreaked havoc on standing crops of mustard, fennel, castor, cumin, jatropha, cotton, and potato, and fodder grass.

To deal with the menace, the central government has rushed 11 teams to Gujarat. “To tackle the menace, 11 central centres have arrived in Gujarat. They will take all necessary steps, including spraying of pesticides, to contain the attack. The teams will remain in the state until the problem is solved,” a senior government official told PTI.

During his visit to Vadodara on Wednesday, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that 11 teams sent by the Centre have begun work to check the locust menace. The state government is also exploring the possibility of using drones to spray insecticides, he said.

“The insect has come from Oman side and due to wind directions, it got diverted to North Gujarat”, said State Agriculture Minister R C Faldu, also informing that insecticides were being sprayed on crops hit by locust attack.

Read: Karachi faces locust attack, Pakistani minister urges people to eat them in Biriyani

The Gujarat government on Thursday also promised compensation for farmers in Banaskantha district and other areas of North Gujarat which are facing a massive locust attack over the last two weeks.

In Banaskantha, crops over 5,000 hectares have been damaged, said a senior official.

According to reports, though the damage in the adjoining districts of Patan, Mehsana, Kutch and Sabarkantha has been contained and brought under control with preventive measures, the government officials said that “since this insect changes its course of travel based on the wind direction, we can’t predict or rule out any possibility of attack in coming days.”

Anti-CAA riots: Over 100 arrested for posting inciting content on social media, 93 FIRs registered by UP Police

OpIndia Staff
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Anti-CAA riots: Over 100 arrested for posting inciting content on social media, 93 FIRs registered by UP Police

The Uttar Pradesh Police has come hard on anti-CAA rioters who indulged in rampant violence over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). According to the recent data released by Lucknow DGP Headquarters, the Uttar Pradesh police have until now, registered 337 FIRs across the state.


The Police and the UP government have taken several hard measures to inflict costs upon the rioters for their actions. Over and above this, the UP police keeping strict surveillance over social media and have been taking brisk action against those who have used social media as a tool to achieve their sinister agenda by spreading false and malicious news about CAA and NRC.

Action has been taken against more than 19409 social media posts so far for spreading falsehood with an intention of inciting violence in the country. The administration identified and blocked over 9372 Twitter, 9856 Facebook, and 181 YouTube profiles claiming to be spreading incendiary content. According to data released the Uttar Pradesh Police have already arrested 124 people for posting inciting content on social media.

Following CM’s orders of seizing the properties of those who indulged in violence in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government has already sent notices to as many as 373 anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters warning them of the confiscation of their property over rioting.

The maximum number of protesters who have received the notice are in Moradabad (200), followed by Lucknow (110), Gorakhpur (34), and Firozabad (29). Strict action will be taken against those who damaged the public property during the CAA protests in the state from December 10-24.

Read: Anti-CAA riots: MoS Home says Kashmiri stone pelters involved in Uttar Pradesh, trains guns on opposition parties

According to the data, around 288 policemen were reportedly injured in Uttar Pradesh and 61 received bullet injuries. Moreover, 19 people have been reported dead in the ensuing riots.

According to an India Today report, the Uttar Pradesh Police had until December 23 recovered 405 empty cartridges, fired by protestors. The autopsies of the dead revealed that most of the deceased were hit by these country made bullets. DGP OP Singh claimed women and children were used as “shields by the protesters”.

Today, the Firozabad Police has released the pictures of a hundred more rioters who indulged in violence in the city on the 20th of December. In the posters released on social media, the Firozabad Police appealed to the citizenry to identify the rioters and help the Police nab them.

In an unsparing warning, which came in the backdrop of violent protests that broke out in Lucknow on December 19, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that strict actions will be taken against hoodlums who have been trying to create unrest in his state and various parts of the country.

On December 22, sealed 50 shops belonging to rioters in Muzaffarnagar who caused damage to public property.

Moreover, in a first, the Rampur Police had also issued notices to as many as 28 locals across Rampur district, holding them responsible for acts of violence and causing damage to government property. The police had sought an explanation as to why recoveries should not be made for damage worth Rs 14.86 lakh.

Further, the UP government has also formed a four-member panel to look into the videos of riots and identify vandals in the state capital Lucknow. As per police, stringent action will be taken against perpetrators once identified.

NDTV spreads fake news again, this time during a ‘fact check’ on the government’s claims on NRC and NPR

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV spreads fake news again, this time during a ‘fact check’ on the government’s claims on NRC and NPR

The propaganda outlet, NDTV, is infamous for its perennial tendency to spread fake news. As a testament to its remarkable ability to spread fake news, the alleged media outlet spread fake news in a segment that called itself a ‘fact-check’. The propaganda outlet, which attempted to ‘fact-check’ the government’s claims on the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens, ended up spreading lies on the whole matter.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=400PmQWFYlQ]

At 13.00 minutes in the video, NDTV addresses Prakash Javadekar’s statement that the NPR was conducted for the first time in 2010 under the UPA government. As a ‘fact-check’ on the Union Minister’s valid assertion, NDTV claimed that the UPA had denied that NPR would be used for the NRC. The NDTV ‘fact-checkers’ used a statement made by senior Congress leader Ajay Maken and treated it as a Shloka from the Holy Vedas themselves without bothering to ‘fact-check’ the Congress leader’s statement.

The NDTV ‘journalist’ says enthusiastically, “The UPA denied using the NPR for the NRC and we have on record Ajay Maken’s byte where he has said clearly that when the NPR was done during the UPA regime, it had nothing to do with the NRC. These were two different things then, but it is not the case now.” It appears that it didn’t even cross the mind of the NDTV journalists to verify whether the statement made by Ajay Maken was even true.

Read: Detention Centres are nothing like Concentration Camps, Congress built them in Assam too: Here is all you need to know

We have published an earlier fact-check where we have reported how it was the UPA government’s idea to link the NPR to the NRC. According to FAQs published during 2011 census, the Congress party had itself announced in 2011 that the NPR was the first step towards the preparation of NRIC. Further, the National Population Register (NPR), an idea is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country was first mooted by the Congress party in 2009 by the Congress party itself during Manmohan Singh government. It was the idea of the then UPA government to use the data collected in the process of NPR to implement a nation-wide NRC.

Now, actually fact-checkers have unearthed a video of scam accused senior Congress leader Chidambaram himself where he clearly states that the NPR would eventually lead to the NRC. Chidambaram clearly stated that the NPR would eventually lead to the NRC. “The NPR process is for the purpose of issuing the resident card,” Chidambaram says before adding, “which eventually will lead to a citizenship card, later.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkIco1HJPkk]

The NDTV is renowned for its distortion of facts and outright lies. There have been numerous occasions when it has spread lies that have undermined national interests. Its reputation of being fake news peddlers is such that it was even mocked in an American show.

Fact check: Does Citizenship Amendment Act violate Article 14 of the Indian Constitution

Shriya Gune
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Fact check: Does Citizenship Amendment Act violate Article 14 of the Indian Constitution

The whole nation is discussing and debating the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act. Everyone has become an expert on law and constitution. Many are arguing that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) violates Article 14 of the constitution that guarantees the fundamental right of equality. Does CAA really violate article 14?

Article 14 provides that state shall not deny to any person equality before the law and equal protection of laws within the territory of India.

The article does not provide for absolute mathematical equality but allows equal treatment to equals and reasonable classification for the purpose of lawmaking.

Supreme Court in Clarence Pais v. Union of India held that ‘Historical reasons may justify differential treatment of separate geographical regions provided it bears a reason and just relation to the matter in respect of which differential treatment is accorded.’

Read: Indian Muslims do not stand to suffer due to the CAA-NRC combo: Here are the laws and guidelines explained

So legislation will not be violative of Article 14 merely because it makes a differentiation between various geographical regions. Such legislation is valid and constitutionally sound if there are historical reasons for such differentiation and there is a just relation between the reason and the matter in respect of which differentiation is made.

The CAA creates a class of persons belonging to certain religions that are in minority in 3 countries. So there is differentiation on a geographical basis and there is a historic justification of such differentiation and also there is a clear Nexus between this justification and the matter for which differentiation is accorded. Let’s go step by step,

The class is of people who are Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, Christians and who have come to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh. This class is of people

1) belonging to minorities

2) coming to India on or before 31 Dec 2014

3) persecuted in their country on the basis of religion

4) Coming from the countries that have a specific official state religion and that share borders with India.

So the class is well defined. The matter in respect of which the classification is made is giving citizenship of India.

Read: Khilafat 2.0: How Useful Idiots in the media and political parties were fooled by Jamia students associated with the ‘blood brother’ of a banned Radical Islamic outfit

The historic justification is the factum of partition on religious grounds and this subcontinent having ben one nation once. The Nexus is clear, the injustice suffered by people having their roots in India due to partition and the promise made to keep our doors open. This, CAA is very much in consonance with the Idea of India, the idea of humanity and the idea of Justice to our people.

When connected with NRC, it gives added protection to this class of people and that’s all. NRC if implemented will simply result in the deportation of illegal immigrants who do not belong to this class and who belong to this class but haven’t availed to the opportunity of applying for Indian citizenship.

If you feel letting illegal migrants stay here and get citizenship then that’s a completely different topic. But if you feel CAA is violative of the right to equality, you are mistaken, misinformed and wrong.

Anti-CAA riots: MoS Home says Kashmiri stone pelters involved in Uttar Pradesh, trains guns on opposition parties

OpIndia Staff
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Anti-CAA riots: MoS Home says Kashmiri stone pelters involved in Uttar Pradesh, trains guns on opposition parties

Hours after Firozabad Police under the direction of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath released the pictures of a hundred more rioters who indulged in violence in the city on the 20th of December appealing to the citizenry to identify the rioters and help the Police nab them, the Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai claimed that Kashmiri stone-pelters were involved in the recent violent riots in Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking at an event in the Samastipur district of Bihar, Rai said, “Stone-pelters from Kashmir were called to participate in the ongoing anti-CAA protests across the state of UP.”

Citing a report, the MoS Home said those doing vote bank politics were behind the unrest and violence across the state. The Union Minister also asserted that the locals did not participate in the violent protests across the state.

“Deliberate effort was made to distort the secular fabric of the country. Opposition parties including Congress had been spreading rumours and misinformation about the amended citizenship law which has been duly passed by the Parliament after a thorough debate and later ratified by the President,” Rai said.

Read: UP Police rubbishes ‘activist’ Harsh Mander’s report where he claimed policemen chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans in AMU

Uttar Pradesh has been a witness to sporadic incidents of extreme violence after the newly amended Citizenship Act came into force. Muslim mob at the behest of many Opposition leaders have gone on a complete rampage, resorting to stone-pelting, arson and vandalism. Several cops and protestors have been injured in the ensuing riots across the state and public properties have been damaged.

The Uttar Pradesh cops have been releasing CCTV footage and pictures of a hundred more rioters who indulged in violence in the city. The Uttar Pradesh Police had also released footage that had shown ‘students’ of the Aligarh Muslim University engaging in violence that prompted Police action. All of this proves irrevocably that the protests were not peaceful and there was a sinister agenda underway to set the entire country on fire.

West Bengal: Hindu activist murdered in Nadia, ‘killed because he refused to join TMC’, says family

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Hindu activist murdered in Nadia, ‘killed because he refused to join TMC’, says family

A 27-year-old youth, worker of the Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM), an offshoot of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, was murdered and his body was found with injuries on his head and neck a little distance away from his home at Kalyani in Nadia district of West Bengal, and the family has blamed TMC for the youth’s murder.

According to reports by PTI, the man’s body and his bike were found at the spot at around 11 pm on December 24, Tuesday.

The family said that the victim left the house in a hurry on receiving a phone call. Later the family rushed to the spot after being informed that his body has been found near the local primary school in their area.

The family claims that the murder was pre-planned. The victim’s elder brother said that local Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers had asked his younger brother to join their party and was murdered as he refused to comply with their demand.

Read: West Bengal: Another party worker killed in Nadia, ‘Debnath shot dead by TMC criminals’, says BJP

Police informed that an investigation into the death has been launched.

Hindu Jagran Manch is an Indian Hindu activist group affiliated to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It focuses on activism against religious conversion and works for the reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism.

West Bengal has always been a hotbed for political violence where TMC goons at the behest of their supremo Mamata Banerjee have been resorting to extreme violence. Recently, an RSS activist and a school teacher named Bir Bahadur Singh was shot at in Kolkata’s Metiabruz area in full public view.

Read: West Bengal: BJP worker seriously injured after being shot by TMC goons for chanting Jai Shri Ram

In yet, another spine chilling incident, Bandhu Prakash Pal, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, his pregnant wife and their six-year-old son were found murdered by unknown miscreants in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on October 10.

Reportedly, Bandhu Prakash was a school teacher who worked in Gosaigram Sahapara Primary School. He also worked as an insurance agent in the locality.

More than 6,000 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria since 2015, 1000 in last year alone: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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More than 6,000 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria since 2015, 1000 in last year alone: Reports

In a shocking revelation, more than 6,000 Christians have been brutally murdered in the last four years and 1,000 of them in last year alone by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria, reports Fox News.

According to a report circulated by Christian news outlets, more than 1,000 Christians have been killed by Fulani herdsmen fuelled by Islamist ideology in the last year in Nigeria.

The Islamic terrorist group named Fulani herdsmen have murdered Christians as part of an aggressive and strategic land-grabbing strategy across the Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Southern Kaduna and parts of Bauchi state, said Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), a British not for profit organisation.

The reports published on 18 November titled “Your Land or Your Body” mentioned that more than 6,000 Christians have been killed and 12,000 displaced by Islamic terrorists, members of the Fulani ethnic group since 2015 in Nigeria.

“They attack rural villages, force villagers off their lands and settle in their place — a strategy that is epitomized by the phrase: ‘Your land or your blood”. In every village, the message from local people is the same: ‘Please, please help us! The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes’,” the report read.

Nomadic Fulani herdsmen seek to replace diversity and difference with an Islamist ideology which is imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply. It is genocide according to the Nigerian House of Representatives, said Baroness Cox, member of House of Lords, who runs the non-profit organisation.

“Something has to change — urgently,” said Cox. “For the longer, we tolerate these massacres, the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a ‘green light’ to carry on killing,” he added.

As the population in the Sahara Desert continues to expand, there is increasing tension over land-scarcity and the predominantly Christian communities remain an easy target of land-grabbing attacks. Christians are also being targeted and killed by Boko Haram, a jihad terrorist group.

Reportedly, the Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the majority of the Christian deaths in Nigeria in 2019. About half of the Christian deaths this year occurred in five separate attacks in Kaduna between January and November, the report said.

“The attacks have, on occasion, led to retaliatory violence, as communities conclude that they can no longer rely on the government for protection or justice,” the report said.

Keep petrol ready, set everything on fire: Watch Odisha Congress leader Pradeep Majhi asking protestors to go on rampage

OpIndia Staff
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Keep petrol ready, set everything on fire: Watch Odisha Congress leader Pradeep Majhi asking protestors to go on rampage

A shocking video has surfaced in which Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Nabarangpur district, Odisha and former MP Pradeep Majhi is brazenly seen instructing his party workers over the phone to prepare for an arson attack. He is heard asking his party workers to keep petrol and diesel ready and wait for further instructions before setting everything on fire.

“Keep petrol and diesel ready. The moment you get an order set everything on fire. We’ll see what happens next,” Majhi was caught on camera while talking to someone over the phone in his native Odia language.


Congress has been observing 12-hour ‘bandh’ in Nabarangpur today protesting ‘police inaction’ in connection with the alleged gang rape and murder of a minor girl in Kosagumuda Police Station area of the district on December 14.

According to a report by Odisha TV, Majhi was staging a protest near Kaunriaguda Chhak in the morning when the Additional SP of Nabarangpur intervened and asked him to withdraw agitation triggering an exchange of words between them. An infuriated Majhi later reportedly called his party cadres and asked them to keep petrol and diesel ready.

In a related development, a vehicle was set on fire by some miscreants near Ambedkar Chakk in Nabarangpur Town. Though their identities could not be established, sources suspect the car was set ablaze after Majhi’s call.

Interestingly, Pradip Majhi is the same Congress leader who had courted controversy after a video of his intimate moment with a woman went viral on social media in April this year.

Later, speaking to Odisha TV, the Congress leader acknowledged that he had directed his party workers to set everything on fire. “I am not at all repentant over my outburst”, said the Congress leader to the channel.


Unremorseful of his action, the Congress leader said: “I don’t believe in democracy anymore. Women and girl children are being raped during BJD government rule and I cannot keep mum. First, a minor girl in Kundali was gang-raped by jawans. Now, another minor girl was gang-raped and murdered in Nabarangpur,” said Pradip Majhi.

“We are being forced to take law in our hands and the government has compelled us to do so. As Gandhian principles are no more helping us to ensure justice, we are bound to adopt the ideals of Subash Chandra Bose. We are forced to adopt violence to get justice. I don’t want to regret whatever I said over the phone. If I have to adopt violence to keep my mothers and sisters safe, I will not step back,” stated the Congress leader.

A 16-year-old tribal girl, who had gone missing from home on December 13 night, was found murdered after gang-rape in Gumundoli village in Nabarangpur district the next day.

Villagers found her dead body on the outskirts of the village in the morning. Her body bore multiple injury marks and police found two jeans trousers from the spot under Kosagumuda police station limits.

Koraput DIG Shefeen Ahamed said the investigation is on and the criminals would be arrested soon.

China plans to rewrite Quran and the Bible, Islamic organisation in Malaysia threatens China to ‘not cross the redline’

OpIndia Staff
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China plans to rewrite Quran and the Bible, Islamic organisation in Malaysia threatens China to ‘not cross the redline’

The Communist government of China has decided to rewrite the Bible and the Quran to fit socialist values, the Daily Mail has reported. Although the order by the Committee for Ethnic Affairs does not mention the texts specifically, it calls for a “comprehensive evaluation of the existing religious classics aiming at contents which do not conform to the progress of the times.”

The Chinese regime maintains that “Jesus Christ’s parables” will have to fall “in line with the Communist Party, failing which they run the risk of being purged from the bibles available to the faithful.” The regime wants a “sinicization” of the Quran and other religious texts. If some texts do not conform to the desired ideals, they will have to be “modified and translated again.”

The Daily Mail reported, “A group of 16 experts, believers and representatives of different religions from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China attended the conference in last month, according to Xinhua News Agency. The meeting was supervised by Wang Yang, Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.”

Read: Chinese social media giant TikTok bans user for highlighting the plight of Uighur Muslims in China

It adds, “Mr Wang stressed that religious authorities must follow President Xi’s instructions and interpret the ideologies of different religions in accordance with ‘the core values of Socialism’ and ‘the requirements of the era’.” The officials were also asked to come up with ‘a religious system with Chinese characteristics’.

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MAPIM) has expressed outrage at the recent revelations. Its president Mohd Azmi Abd Hamid, in a statement, demanded an explanation on the matter from the Chinese authorities. “The re-writing of the Quran will be seen as a war against Islam and Muslims around the world will definitely stand up to rebuke this policy,” Hamid said.

He further stated, “We remind China not to cross the redline. The already massive repression of Uyghur Muslims has been heavily criticised by the international community and the Muslims will not tolerate such abusive policy to alter the most sacred text of Islam. We demand the truth of this report and if China refuses to respond we will follow closely if the policy will actually be implemented or the policy be revoked.” “We call again that OIC must not be silent on the plight of the Uyghur Muslims and Muslims in general in China,” Hamid added.

Chinese oppression of Uighur Muslims has been known for a long time. Earlier the Chinese police had imposed a dress code for Uighur women, under which the Muslim women are not allowed to wear long dresses. Last year photos had appeared on social media showing police cutting dresses of Uighur women for being “too long”.

It was also reported that Han Males are sleeping on the same bed as Uyghur Muslim women in China whose male family members, often husbands, are locked up in ‘reeducation camps’ in conformity with a diktat by the Chinese regime. It appears now that the Chinese regime is willing to go many steps farther and rewrite the entire Bible and the Quran.

Two weeks after his arrest, NIA raids Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Akhil Gogoi’s residence in Guwahati

OpIndia Staff
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Two weeks after his arrest, NIA raids Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Akhil Gogoi’s residence in Guwahati

The National Investigation Agency on Thursday carried out searches at the residence of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Akhil Gogoi in Guwahati and seized Akhil Gogoi’s old laptop and several documents, including RTIs filed by him.

Akhil Gogoi’s wife, Karabi Gogoi said the NIA also took the diary he wrote when he was jailed the last time. He wanted to write a book on his experiences in jail. The activist who was arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act earlier this month amid protests over the new citizenship law, has been accused of having links with a banned Maoist group.

Gogoi tried to use the anti-citizenship law movement in Assam to help the Maoists establish a base in the state, the probe agency officials have claimed.

Akhil Gogoi was arrested on December 12 amid widespread protests against the amended Citizenship Act across the state. Five days later, he was sent to the NIA custody by a special court in Guwahati. He was produced at NIA court after the NIA custody ended on Friday.

Read: Understanding Assam protests: Here is how it emphasizes the necessity of NRC, and CAB is not to be blamed for the mess

The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader has been protesting against the citizenship law since last year.

The activist had in January tried to instigate the people of Assam and threaten the government by his secessionist rant over the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The Marxist peasant leader had said that if Assamese sentiments are not respected than the state will have to secede from the Union Of India.

Akhil Gogoi was previously slapped with a sedition case on January 7, after he organised a rally and issued secessionist remarks at Guwahati on January 7, along with Sahitya Akademi winning litterateur Hiren Gohain and senior journalist Manjit Mahanta. The three were booked under sections of 120 (B), 121, 123 and 124 (A).

Akhil Gogoi is a Marxist peasant leader, who started his public life with anti-corruption campaigns. He formed the left-wing organization Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in 2005. It was also part of India Against Corruption, under the leadership of Anna Hazare. But recently his activities are mainly targetted towards BJP. He is trying to follow the same path as Arvind Kejriwal, starting with an anti-corruption movement against the Congress government but gradually turning to become mainly an anti-BJP organisation. He is also suspected to have links with the Maoists.

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