Human rights defenders have appealed to the Assam government to release a college girl, jailed about two months ago for allegedly penning a pro-ULFA(I) poem, in order to let her appear for her examination.
ULFA(I) expands to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) that wants secession of Assam. It is headed by Paresh Baruah, who operates out of Myanmar and China.
Barshashree Buragohain, a resident of Jorhat area of Eastern Assam and pursuing mathematics at the town’s DCB College, was picked up by the police on May 17 from Uriamghat in the adjoining Golaghat district for posting “anti-national” poems on social media.
“She had gone to her friend’s house to attend a family function. She was to have been released a day later after counselling during which the police made her delete all her poems supposedly supporting the ULFA(I),” her brother Arindam Buragohain told The Hindu on Wednesday.
“Since she was new to Facebook, we don’t know what exactly she wrote. The FIR says the police found two lines of a poem promoting treason and arrested her on May 18 under two sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” he said.
One section prescribes imprisonment for up to two years with fine and the other up to seven years with fine for advocating, abetting, advising or inciting the commission of any unlawful activity.
Two regional parties – Raijor Dal and Assam Jatiya Parishad – have asked the district authorities to release the young girl who would be unable to appear for her second semester examination.
A member of her family said the Gauhati High Court has sought her case diary on July 21, five days after the start of her examination. “The schedule was announced by the Dibrugarh University (to which her college is affiliated) a few days after the court fixed the date,” he said.
“The Assam government should not be so cruel. She can get bail if the government decides to be lenient. She took up a pen, not a firearm that the government should be afraid of,” rights activist Gyanen Chakraborty wrote on a social media platform.
G.P. Singh, Assam’s Special Director-General of Police (Law and Order), defended the action against the girl.
“There’s a specific call to indulge in waging war against the State in her Facebook post ‘Akou Korim Rashtradroh’ (will indulge in treason again). When someone publicly professes support for a banned organisation and declares the intent of waging war against the Indian state, we are legally bound to prosecute that person. Following due process, a charge sheet shall be filed in a competent court of law. Let the law take its own course,” he said.
