Why is Indigenous Activist and Leader Pranab Doley still in prison?

Anand Mangnale — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 15:26:49 GMT

Key findings

A sessions judge bailed Pranab Doley on 29 July 2026. The next day Assam’s Home and Political Department ordered him detained under the National Security Act.
The High Court reserved judgment on his challenge on 14 October. By the end of October he had spent 111 days in custody, The Wire reported.
The grounds cite 13 cases and foreign money. His lawyer told The Wire he was acquitted or discharged in 11 of the cases, and the bail judge found nothing hidden in his travel funds.
The Assam cabinet approved the land lease in 2023 for Jenipro, which it called part of the “Hyatt Group of Hotels”. Jenipro now belongs to Juniper Hotels, whose largest shareholder is a Hyatt subsidiary.
The state’s forest officer placed the site inside Kaziranga’s proposed eco-sensitive zone, 1.17 km from an animal corridor. The zone has not been notified, Down To Earth reported.

On 14 October 2026, the Gauhati High Court reserved its judgment on Pranab Doley’s challenge to his detention. By the end of that month he had spent 111 days in custody, waiting for the decision, The Wire reported.

Doley has not been convicted of anything. He is not even being held for trial. On 29 July a sessions judge in Golaghat granted him bail in the case he was arrested in. “True public order is achieved not by silencing the affected, but by listening to them,” the judge wrote, as quoted by The Wire.

The next day Assam’s Home and Political Department ordered him detained under the National Security Act. The law lets the government hold a person without charge or trial for up to a year, The Reporters’ Collective reported. The order spoke of a “real and imminent possibility” that he would harm public order and the security of the state, The Week reported.

So the man a judge said could go home is held under a law meant for threats to the state. What he had been fighting is a luxury resort at Inglay Pathar, on Kaziranga’s edge, on land that Adivasi families say is theirs.

From a cabinet decision to a cell

The paperwork begins in 2023. On 29 June that year a company called Jenipro Hotels was incorporated. It took a 99-year lease on 40,134 square metres from the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), the state’s tourism company.

The Assam cabinet approved that lease on 25 August 2023. Its decision, still on the chief minister’s website, describes Jenipro as “a group entity of Saraf Hotel Enterprises (Hyatt Group of Hotels)”.

The Assam cabinet’s decision of 25 August 2023 calls Jenipro part of the “Hyatt Group of Hotels”. Source: cm.assam.gov.in.

A month later, on 23 September, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a five-star hotel near Kaziranga, to be built by the Hyatt group for Rs 100 crore. The government signed the MoU that day, Northeast Live reported.

The land came from Golaghat district. A December 2024 RTI reply shows the district administration allotted 30 bighas to ATDC, which handed it to the Saraf group, The Reporters’ Collective reported. The clearing began on 7 June 2024, when the administration demolished an Adivasi farmer’s house. Forty-five Adivasi families say they hold ownership documents for the land.

The state calls it government land cleared of encroachment. Yet ATDC’s own RTI reply classified the parcel as “government periodic patta”, a title that carries heritable rights.

From December 2025 the Golaghat administration took Rs 3 lakh cheques from the Chief Minister’s relief fund to the farmers, Down To Earth reported. Residents said nobody told them in writing what the money was for, and several families refused it. On 1 June 2026 the Gauhati High Court issued notice to ATDC on a petition by 20 of the families.

One resident told The Reporters’ Collective that a survey was done without notice on 24 June, and that construction material was then dumped on their land. On 28 June about 50 people met near the site. Police say they then entered the “ATDC Hyatt project” premises, Arunachal Times reported.

Doley was picked up by police in Guwahati on 12 July. He was held for 18 hours before the arrest was made formal, The Reporters’ Collective reported, and he says he was shown no warrant. Four other activists were arrested in the same case.

On 15 July Sarma spoke in the Assembly. “Instead of the government needing to arrest them, the leftists should have taken the initiative to get a five-star hotel here,” he said, as reported by The Reporters’ Collective.

Two days later UN human rights experts called for the defenders’ release if they were held “solely” for peacefully exercising their rights. They asked Assam to “suspend any land acquisition or development” until the communities had given their free, prior and informed consent.

UN experts ask Assam to suspend land acquisition until the communities consent. Source: OHCHR press release, 17 July 2026.

On 29 July Additional Sessions Judge N.M. Abdullah Ahmed granted Doley bail on a Rs 20,000 surety. He never walked out. The detention order is dated 30 July and was served on him that day, and the grounds followed on 31 July. His family received the papers that afternoon, while the bail formalities were being completed.

His representation against the detention, dated 14 August, was rejected by an order of the same date. He took the case to the High Court, which issued notice on 27 August. On 14 September the state said its affidavit was ready, and the court gave it until 22 September to file. On 14 October the court reserved judgment.

The High Court’s order of 27 August 2026 records the detention order, the grounds and the rejected representation. Source: W.P.(Crl.) 40/2026.

What the state alleges, and what the judge found

The detention order cites a report by Golaghat’s senior superintendent of police and says ordinary criminal law was not enough to stop Doley, Northeast Now reported. The grounds list 13 criminal cases since 2017 and allege foreign remittances. The order speaks of “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources” and complains that it has no details of who paid for his trips abroad, The Reporters’ Collective reported.

His lawyer, Dipesh Agarwala, told The Wire that Doley has been acquitted or discharged in 11 of those 13 cases. The case behind his July arrest had already been weighed by the sessions court when it bailed him.

That court had looked at the money too. Doley may have received funds for his travel abroad as an activist, the judge said, but nothing was hidden. He had already spent seven days in custody, so the question of him fleeing did not arise. The judge noted the defence’s point that police could follow the money through a “document-based investigation” without keeping him in jail, The Reporters’ Collective reported.

The judge also tested the police account of 28 June. The state had called Doley one of the “masterminds of the riot”. The videos did not show protesters directly attacking officers, and no deadly weapons were recovered, The Wire reported from the order. Police said the crowd tried to set a cement mixer on fire. The footage showed a woman pouring diesel on it, the court noted, but no attempt to light it.

No document states why the state moved within a day of the bail. The record does show what Doley stood for. He is the convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee, which speaks for residents of more than 100 villages around the park. He is secretary of a farmers’ and workers’ union, the Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha. In 2021 he stood against minister Atul Bora for the Bokakhat seat and came second.

The day after Doley’s arrest, Bora said the affected families had accepted a rehabilitation package. Residents said about seven cheques had been handed out, The Wire reported.

The government and the companies

The Assam government’s hand is on every step. Its cabinet approved the lease and its chief minister announced the deal. In August 2024 Sarma called reports placing the hotels in eco-sensitive zones “assumptions”, and said the sites were “far from the national park”. The government had “almost begged” companies to come, he added.

Its Golaghat administration allotted the land, cleared it and brought the cheques. That administration has said the transfer to ATDC happened in November 2022 under the watch of Atul Bora, Down To Earth reported. Its Home and Political Department, through commissioner and secretary Diganta Borah, signed the detention order.

Juniper Hotels bought all of Jenipro for about Rs 2.75 crore. One seller was Juniper Investments, a Juniper promoter, which made it a related-party deal. The purchase closed on 18 March 2025. Juniper’s August 2026 presentation describes the plot as “allotted by government at a reasonable rate to promote tourism”, and budgets Rs 200 crore to build there. Its May presentation says the hotel will sit “at a very close proximity to the National Park”.

The Saraf family’s Saraf Hotels, registered in Mauritius, holds 34.64% of Juniper. Arun Kumar Saraf chairs the company and Varun Saraf is its chief executive. Neither Juniper nor the Saraf Group answered the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s questions about the arrests.

Hyatt is Juniper’s largest shareholder. Its Mauritius subsidiary, Two Seas Holdings, holds 38.76%, an interest Hyatt’s annual report values at $92 million. Two Hyatt senior vice presidents, David Peters and Elton Wong, sit on Juniper’s board.

Juniper’s promoters at 30 September 2026: Two Seas Holdings 38.76%, Saraf Hotels 34.64%. Source: BSE shareholding pattern.

Hyatt’s statements about the project do not match the paperwork around it. The cabinet had called Jenipro part of the “Hyatt Group of Hotels” in 2023. In June 2024 Hyatt told the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre it was “not planning to construct a hotel at Hathikuli Inglay Pothar”. A month later a Hyatt spokesperson told Mongabay-India that Hyatt had no projects in Kaziranga.

Hyatt in June 2024: “not planning to construct a hotel at Hathikuli Inglay Pothar”. Source: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

On 21 May 2026 Juniper’s board told the stock exchanges that the land was earmarked for “a 115-key ALILA luxury resort by Hyatt”. The investor presentation filed that day gave the “Proposed Brand” as “ALILA (By Hyatt)”. Alila is one of Hyatt’s luxury brands.

Juniper’s board filing of 21 May 2026: “a 115-key ALILA luxury resort by Hyatt”. Source: NSE filing, p. 22.

Then Doley was arrested. On 21 July Hyatt told the centre that it “has not entered into any agreement to brand or operate” the project. In the same letter it confirmed a “non-controlling ownership interest” in Juniper.

Hyatt’s letter of 21 July 2026 to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

Juniper’s next filings dropped the name. The AGM notice of 3 August describes “a 106-key a luxury resort” due by 2029-30, with no Alila and no Hyatt. The 17 August presentation leaves out the brand as well. The filings give no reason for the change.

Juniper’s AGM notice of 3 August 2026: the same project, no brand and a later date. Source: NSE filing, p. 14.

Others hold shares along the chain. At 30 September 2026 Juniper’s public holders above 1% were quant Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, Bandhan Small Cap Fund, The Prudential Assurance Company, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and M&G Asian Fund. Hyatt is controlled by Pritzker family trusts. Its largest outside holders include Baron Capital, BlackRock, Principal and Wellington.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund held 2.13% of Juniper in September 2025. By 31 December 2025 the stake was gone, about seven months before the arrests. Its data gives no reason, and in June 2026 the fund still held Hyatt shares.

What is at risk

Kaziranga has been a World Heritage Site since 1985. It holds the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses. The 2022 census counted 2,613 rhinos in the park, out of 4,014 greater one-horned rhinos counted worldwide. It is also a tiger reserve with one of the highest tiger densities in India, and UNESCO says it needs its link to the Karbi Anglong hills kept open.

In an interim order of April 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that “no new construction shall be permitted” on private land in the nine animal corridors around the park. Assam notified those corridors in 2022.

The Supreme Court’s interim order of 12 April 2019 bars new construction on private land in the nine corridors. Source: W.P.(C) 202/1995, pp. 7-8.

The state’s own forest officer told the National Green Tribunal that the Inglay Pathar plot is not in a notified corridor. He put it about 1.17 km from the Haldhibari corridor and 7.17 km from the park, inside the area Assam has proposed as Kaziranga’s eco-sensitive zone.

The Assam Tribune, quoting WWF-India, described the Haldhibari corridor as including part of the Hatikhuli tea estate, which the site adjoins. Down To Earth puts the site about two kilometres from the park’s core habitat. Locals call the land a grazing ground for wild elephants, The Wire reported.

The forest officer’s figures, as quoted by the tribunal: 7.17 km from the park, 1.17 km from the Haldhibari corridor. Source: NGT judgment, 14 February 2025, p. 10.

That eco-sensitive zone, the buffer that limits building around a protected area, has not been notified. In November 2024 the environment ministry and the tiger authority told the tribunal that Kaziranga had no tourism plan, no tiger conservation plan and no such zone, Down To Earth reported. The ministry said no new tourism infrastructure should come up around a tiger reserve until a tourism plan is approved.

The tribunal had taken up the matter on its own. On 14 February 2025 it dismissed the case as “at this stage premature”. Assam had told it that no detailed project report for the hotel had been filed, and that its zone proposal of 6 May 2024 was “pending consideration”.

The tribunal finds the concerns “at this stage premature”. Source: NGT judgment, 14 February 2025, p. 13.

For the families, the risk is the land itself. Since the families went to court, one of the farmers told Down To Earth, the area has been fenced and structures built to house police. Doley’s committee says no environmental or social impact assessment, and no wildlife board approval, has been disclosed for the project.

The right to object is at stake too. The UN experts reminded companies of their responsibility for ensuring “that those who raise concerns are not subject to reprisals”. More than 60 movements and rights groups demanded that the detention order be withdrawn, and thousands marched in Bokakhat for his release.

Even a family visit took a court order. Doley’s father went to Golaghat jail on 31 July and was sent away to seek the district magistrate’s permission. His applications went unanswered until a High Court judge, on 7 August, directed the jail to let him and Doley’s lawyer in.

The resort has not waited. In August Juniper told its investors that site works had begun, and at the end of October locals told The Wire the boundary walls were almost complete. Doley is still waiting for the judgment the High Court reserved on 14 October.

The cost of a luxury property is the destruction of an UNESCO world heritage site. Putting the rhino’s and other wildlife at risk, displacing and threatening the lives and livelihood of indigenous people, and illegal detention of an indigenous activist and leader.

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