A group of academics associated with a human rights programme in the United States has called for the unconditional release of indigenous human rights activist Pranab Doley, arrested for allegedly fuelling violence to derail the Assam government’s move to construct a luxury hotel and a museum near the Kaziranga National Park.
The activist was detained in Guwahati on July 12 and arrested in eastern Assam’s Golaghat at 3.20 a.m. on Monday (July 13, 2026) on charges that he and several others had “unlawfully trespassed with deadly weapons” into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and later into the hotel project by Hyatt Group and Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) at Ingle Pathar on June 29.
The Indigenous Rights and Protected Areas Initiative of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Programme (IPLP) at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law condemned Mr. Doley’s arrest. The activist, who belongs to the Mishing community, is a member of IPLP’s Advisory Council and the convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC).
Also read: ‘How did Assam permit large-scale hotels in and around Kaziranga?’
“We call for his immediate and unconditional release and for the withdrawal of all charges arising from the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and to defend the collective rights of indigenous peoples,” the IPLP members, mostly comprising academics, said in a statement on Tuesday (July 14, 2026).
According to the Indigenous People’s Rights International, the Asia Indigenous People’s Pact, and India-based indigenous organisations, Mr. Doley was arrested in connection with a criminal case registered at Bokakhat police station on June 29. Bokakhat, in Golaghat district, is the administrative headquarters of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
Land reportedly reclassified
Mr. Doley, 40, was reportedly arrested without being shown an arrest warrant. His mobile phone was seized, and he was allegedly denied contact with supporters before being transferred from the Dispur police station (Guwahati) into the custody of the Bokakhat police.
He was booked under numerous provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including counts of criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction of and assault on public servants, mischief, criminal trespass, and criminal intimidation.
“We are alarmed by reports that police raided Mr. Doley’s ancestral home (near Kaziranga) in the course of searching for Rajiv Pegu, another member of the GKLHRPC, suggesting a widening pattern of pressure on the leadership of the affected communities,” the IPLP members said.
Mr. Doley and his associates have been leading a movement of Adivasi and indigenous farming families opposing the proposed luxury hotel project at Ingle Pathar on the fringes of the national park, famed for its one-horned rhinoceroses, and the alleged reclassification and allocation of community grazing and farmlands to the ATDC for that project.
Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Atul Bora, who represents the Bokakhat Assembly constituency, defended the activist’s arrest and claimed that the site in question was government land and the ATDC was allotted 30 bighas (9.9 acres) for construction of the hotel and Tea Tribes Museum.
The IPLP members said the government acted while the matter was sub judice. In June 2026, the Gauhati High Court issued notices to the ATDC in a petition by 20 Adivasi farming families challenging the acquisition and fencing of the land, and the absence of the required environmental and social impact assessments.
“The arrest of the communities’ most prominent spokesperson while those proceedings remain pending is, in our view, capable of having a serious chilling effect on the ability of the affected families to pursue their claims, and we ask that it be examined in that light,” the group of academicians said.
Human rights obligations
The U.S.-based academics said Mr. Doley’s arrest violates the international human rights obligations by which India is bound.
“Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a state party, everyone enjoys the rights to liberty and security of person and to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention (Article 9), to a fair hearing (Article 14), and to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association (Articles 19, 21 and 22). Detention that is a response to the legitimate exercise of those freedoms is arbitrary within the meaning of Article 9 and of the jurisprudence of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,” they said.
“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories, and resources (Articles 25-26), to redress for lands taken or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent (Article 28), to freedom from forced removal (Article 10), and to free, prior and informed consent before the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories (Article 32). India voted in favour of the Declaration,” the academicians said.
“The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders further recognises the right of everyone, individually and in association with others, to promote and strive for the protection of human rights, and the corresponding duty of the state to protect defenders against violence, retaliation and arbitrary action (Articles 1 and 12),” they said.
Mr. Doley, who contested and lost the Bokakhat Assembly constituency twice to Mr. Bora, represented affected communities from India at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva in November 2025.
Published – July 14, 2026 07:00 pm IST
