• Source:JND
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Graffiti artist Marshall Baruah and activist Ankuman Bordoloi were arrested on Monday and sent to 14-day judicial custody in connection with a graffiti critical of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati that allegedly read “Kick Himanta Save Nature”. Marshall Baruah had allegedly made the graffiti on Saturday in Guwahati’s Bharalumukh area, during a protest against the proposed felling of trees for a public transport project.

According to advocate Santanu Borthakur, part of the legal team defending the men, the grounds of arrest furnished to the accused on Monday cited the graffiti that read “Kick Himanta Save Nature”.

“The wording on the graffiti is the only reason for their arrest,” said Guwahati West DCP Padmanabh Baruah, as quoted by an Indian Express report.

Protests have been taking place in Guwahati’s Bharalumukh area since last week by local residents against the marking of over 70 trees for proposed felling to make an overbridge. This came after similar protests against the marking of 28 trees around Dighalipukhuri waterbody, which had prompted the government to announce it would change the design of a flyover.

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Baruah had done similar artwork at the Dighalipukhuri protest site. Last week, he joined the protest site at Bharalumukh and set up a sheet for his artwork there. His friend Saurav Patgiri said that protesters began painting on Friday.

“The work was not finished on Friday so they went again on Saturday afternoon and painted till the night. Marshall was always very careful about what he wrote in his paintings. I spoke to him that night after he wrote ‘Kick Himanta Save Nature’ and that started being circulated. He said he was changing it – he whitewashed the word ‘Kick’ and wrote ‘Please’ over it. The next morning, I found that he had been detained by the police,” he said, quoted The Indian Express.

The FIR has been registered under sections of the BNS pertaining to public nuisance, “intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace”, spreading false information or rumours, unlawful assembly and criminal intimidation and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, which is a non-bailable offence.

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“Today they were placed in 14-day judicial custody by the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate and their bail petition was rejected,” said advocate Borthakur.

Baruah has made artwork during a number of protests, including the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the state, in the recent protests at Dighalipukhuri, and murals against the proposed oil exploration near Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary.