News Analysis India

Tag: UAPA

  • Anti-CAA protests: Sharjeel Imam denies inciting violence, says cannot be hammered with sedition

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: JNU student Sharjeel Imam, arrested for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during the protests against CAA and NRC, told a Delhi court on Monday that he cannot be hammered with sedition as his speeches did not call for violence.

    Imam has moved the court seeking bail in a case related to speeches made by him at two universities in 2019, where he allegedly threatened to “cut off” Assam and the rest of the Northeast from India.

    He has been arrested under UAPA and sedition.

    During the hearing, advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, representing the accused, apprised Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat that no part of his speech called for any kind of violence to be initiated.

    “When Sharjeel Imam says that this piece of legislation (CAA/NRC) is unconstitutional, and seeks to persuade the government to rethink and says if you don’t do it, we will be on the streets, he cannot be hammered by sedition,” the counsel asserted.

    He further said that the right to protest, the right to blockade, and the right to bring the country to a standstill is not equal to an act of sedition.

    “The speech did not call for violence. He just called for a road blockade. He did not say that the northeast should become a different state and declare independence. That would have been seditious,” advocate Mir added.

    He emphasised that Imam is not a member of any banned organisation or terrorist gang but is merely a student.

    The alleged inflammatory speeches were made at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 13, 2019, and at Aligarh Muslim University on December 16, 2019.

    He is in judicial custody since January 28, 2020.

    Imam is accused of offenses relating to sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, imputations prejudicial to national integration, and public mischief under the Indian Penal Code, and indulging in unlawful activities under the UAPA.

    Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against Imam in the case, in which it alleged that he allegedly gave speeches inciting hatred, contempt, and disaffection towards the Central Government and instigated the people which led to the violence in December 2019.

    “In the garb of CAA, he (Imam) exhorted people of a particular community to block highways leading to major cities and resort to ‘chakka jaam’. Also, in the name of opposing CAA, he openly threatened to cut off Assam and other Northeastern states from the rest of the country,” the charge sheet had said.

  • NIA draft charges claim Elgar Parishad case accused wanted to wage war against nation 

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed its charge-sheet against 22 persons, accused of inciting violence during the Bhima Koregaon event in 2018, including waging war against the country, but did not mention that the accused either planned or even had any links to the controversy related to “assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

    The NIA charge sheet accused mentioned father Stan Swamy, who died in July this year, Jyoti Raghoba Jagtap, Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha and Hany Babu. Besides, six people were absconding.

    The NIA charge sheet included 17 draft charges against 22 people, accused of threatening India’s sovereignty, integrity and security by conspiring against “government or civil authorities/public functionaries, besides including the charge of waging a war against the country, which is punishable with death.

    Interestingly, the draft charges did not mention a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as claimed in 2018 by the Pune police, but mention “cause the death of a public functionary”.

    The agency said the accused were members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and its front organisations whose main objective is to establish “Janta Sarkar” or ‘people’s Government’ via revolution supported by a commitment to protracted armed struggle to undermine and to seize power from the state.

    It said the accused “abetted and assisted” unlawful activities to threaten the unity of the country strike terror in the people, using explosive substances, transporting sophisticated weapons like Chinese QLZ 87 Automatic Grenade Launcher and Russian GM-94 Grenade Launcher… likely to cause death or injuries to any person and was an attempt to do or cause the death of public functionary.

    Students of various universities, including Delhi’s JNU as well as Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) were recruited to carry out terror activities, it added.

    The NIA said the accused conspired to demand and organise Rs 8 crore for the weapons, the draft charges added. NIA alleged that pursuant to the conspiracy, the Elgar Parishad event was organised by Kabir Kala Manch a ‘front’ organisation of CPI(M) on December 31, 2017, in Pune, that led to the caste violence at Bhima Koregaon the following day that resulted in death of one person.

  • Both factions of Hurriyat Conference likely to be banned under UAPA

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: A ban under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act may be imposed on both factions of the secessionist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference which has been spearheading the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir for over two decades, officials said.

    They said that a recent probe into the granting of MBBS seats to Kashmiri students by institutions in Pakistan indicates that the money collected from aspirants by some organisations which were part of the Hurriyat Conference conglomerate was being used for funding terror organisations in the union territory.

    The officials said both the factions of the Hurriyat are likely to be banned under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA, under which “if the Central Government is of opinion that any association is, or has become, an unlawful association, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such association to be unlawful”.

    They said that the proposal was mooted in accordance with the Centre’s policy of zero tolerance against terrorism. The Hurriyat Conference came into existence in 1993 with 26 groups, including some pro-Pakistan and banned outfits such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, JKLF and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

    It also included the People’s Conference and the Awami Action Committee headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. The separatist conglomerate broke into two factions in 2005 with the moderate group being led by the Mirwaiz and the hard-line headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

    So far, the Centre has banned the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JKLF under the UAPA. The ban was imposed in 2019.

    The officials said a probe into funding of terror groups indicated alleged involvement of secessionist and separatist leaders, including the members and cadres of the Hurriyat Conference who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

    The cadres raised funds in the country and from abroad through various illegal channels, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

    The funds collected were used for causing disruption in the Kashmir Valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, systematically burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India as part of a criminal conspiracy, they claimed.

    Supporting the case for banning the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference under the UAPA, the officials cited several cases related to terror funding, including the one being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in which several of the conglomerate’s cadres were arrested and jailed.

    Many of the second-rung cadres of both the factions are in jail since 2017, they said.

    Among those in jail are Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of Geelani; businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali; Geelani’s close aide Ayaz Akbar, who is also the spokesperson of the hardline separatist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat; Peer Saifullah; Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the moderate Hurriyat Conference; Mehrajuddin Kalwal; Nayeem Khan; and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’.

    Later, JKLF chief Yaseen Malik, DeM head Asiya Andrabi and pro-Pakistan separatist Masarat Alam were also named in a supplementary charge sheet in a case of terror financing.

    Another case which is likely to be cited for banning the two Hurriyat Conference factions is the one against PDP youth leader Waheed-ur-Rahman Parra, who is alleged to have paid Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of Geelani for keeping Kashmir in turmoil after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen terror commander Burhan Wani in 2016, the officials said.

    The NIA has alleged that after the death of Wani, who was killed in an encounter with the Army in July 2016, Parra got in touch with Altaf Ahmad Shah, alias Altaf Fantoosh, and asked him to ensure that the Valley was kept on the boil with widespread unrest and stone pelting.

    Also, the Counter Intelligence (Kashmir), a branch of CID department of Jammu and Kashmir Police, registered a case in July last year following information that several unscrupulous persons, including some Hurriyat leaders, were hand in glove with some educational consultancies and are selling Pakistan-based MBBS seats and admission in other professional courses in various colleges and universities.

    At least four persons, including Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Bhat, self-styled chairman of Salvation Movement which is part of moderate Hurriyat Conference, were arrested in this case. It is alleged that the constituents of Hurriyat Conference were “selling” MBBS seats in Pakistan to Kashmiri students and using the money collected, at least partly, to support and fund terrorism.

    During the probe, it had surfaced that individual Hurriyat leaders had their quota of seats which were sold to people desiring to obtain MBBS and other professional degrees in one way or the other, the officials said.

    The officials said evidence showed that the money was “put into channels that ended up in supporting programmes and projects pertaining to terrorism and separatism like payment for organising stone pelting”.

    Citing investigation, the officials said that average cost of an MBBS seat in Pakistan was anything between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 12 lakh. In some cases, the fee was brought down on the intervention of Hurriyat leaders.

    Depending upon the political heft of the Hurriyat leader who intervened, concessions were extended to aspiring students, the officials said.

  • Netaji kin wants colonial-era sedition law used to incarcerate Subhas Chandra Bose repealed

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Colonial-era laws such as sedition, which are continued to be used to stifle dissent, should be repealed, said Sugata Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

    Bose, who won the Lok Sabha elections from Jadavpur in 2014 as a TMC candidate but refrained from contesting the last parliamentary polls, said he would like to “play a role” to bring about qualitative change “in support of democracy” — a comment seen as an indication that he may return to active politics soon.

    Expressing concern, he pointed out that several colonial-era laws, which were used to try silence freedom fighters such as Netaji, Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, are still being used by the government.

    ALSO READ: Netaji kin seeks DNA test of ashes kept at Japan’s Renkoji temple

    “We have to strengthen the pillars of our democracy and there is a need to repeal these lawless colonial-era laws. I am especially worried by the fact that even the writ of Habeas Corpus can be suspended in some cases,” he told PTI in an interview.

    Bose, who is the chairman of Netaji Research Bureau, besides being the Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University, pointed out that the Supreme Court too recently questioned the need for the sedition law.

    “We have continued with a whole battery of these colonial laws, sometimes under new names such as the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act). These need to be scrapped to protect erosion of democracy,” he said.

    “Even without a formal Emergency, application of these laws is enough to create a state of Emergency,” he added. The charge of sedition was imposed against Netaji several times. Bose noted that even some new rules, including those under the IT Act, “which may be well-intentioned” but has the potential to be misused.

    The former lawmaker said that he would “like to play a role closer to bring about a qualitative change in support of democracy”, even as he refrained from spelling out the exact part that he is eyeing in the national political arena.

    Bose is known to be close to TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and the Gandhi family, which may help him in playing a major role as the opposition parties look to unite ahead of the 2024 elections to take on the BJP.

    “I firmly believe in federalism and consequently feel that we will have a stronger Union if we have a flexible union,” he said, indicating his political priorities.

  • ‘UAPA in its present form poses serious threat to democracy’: Ex-babus in open letter

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in its present form poses a serious threat to the freedom of citizens and to democracy, and the government should enact a fresh legislation to replace it, a group of former bureaucrats has said in an open letter.

    The UAPA has a chequered history, they said.

    This legislation, passed in 1967 on the recommendations of the National Integration Council to combat communalism, casteism, regionalism and linguistic chauvinism and to deal with associations engaged in secessionist activities, has changed colour over time and has now become a statute that has created new categories of offences and punishments, they said.

    The UAPA has been in existence in India’s statute books for over five decades and the harsh amendments it has gone through in recent years have made it “draconian, repressive, and amenable to gross misuse at the hands of ruling politicians and the police”, according to the open letter written by 108 former civil servants under the aegis of the Constitutional Conduct Group.

    The law, as it stands today, has many flaws and loopholes making it amenable to large scale abuse and misuse by some politicians and overzealous policemen, it said.

    Participating in a session at the G-7 Summit in Cornwall, the United Kingdom, held between 11 and 13 June 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of democracy and freedom being part of the Indian ethos, it said.

    “If the Prime Minister is true to his word, his government should heed the call of legal luminaries and the ordinary public, appreciate that the UAPA in its present form poses a serious threat to the freedom of our citizens and to democracy and, after consulting legal experts and taking into account the views of Parliament, enact fresh legislation to replace the UAPA,” the letter read.

    The former civil servants cited a written reply to Parliament by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in March this year to note that 1,948 persons were arrested under the UAPA in 1,226 cases across the country in 2019, a 72 per cent increase as compared to 2015.

    The year 2019 saw the highest number of arrests in the country, particularly in Uttar Pradesh (498), Manipur (386), Tamil Nadu (308), Jammu & Kashmir (227), and Jharkhand (202), the letter said.

    Despite the large number of arrests under the UAPA, the number of prosecutions and convictions shows a steep decline, it said.

    The government of India has admitted that a mere 2.2 per cent of the cases registered between 2016 and 2019 resulted in conviction, the letter said.

    “We may conclude that the vast majority of the arrests under UAPA were made on specious grounds just to spread fear and muzzle dissent,” it said.

    “The most shocking of the arrests under the UAPA have been of persons accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case.

    Several well regarded activists who have fought throughout their lives for the rights of tribal people and other oppressed groups have been arrested as terrorists and, even today, languish in jail,” the letter said.

    Former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, former Social Justice and Empowerment Secretary Anita Agnihotri and former Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao are among the 108 signatories.

  • Arrest of tribals under UAPA on the rise, reveals reply of Ministry of Tribal Affairs

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The number of tribal persons put under trial under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) has increased between 2017 and 2019, according to a resposnse by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in Parliament on Thursday.

    While the National Crime Records Bureau does not maintain such data, additional information was obtained from the agency, the ministry said in response to a question on the number of tribal undertrials. It did not respond to a query on what was being done to ensure speedy trial of suh prisoners. 

    The number of such prisoners in 2017 was 4,098. It increased to 4,862 in 2018. Next year, this number was 5,645, according to data shared by the Centre. Such prisoners were the highest in UP in 2019 at 1,519, almost doubling from 784 in 2017. The number of undertrial tribal prisoners in Assam remained consistently high — 1,337 in 2017, 1,397 in 2018 and 1,374 in 2019. The other state recording a significant rise tribal undertrial prisoners is Tamil Nadu — 8 in 2017 to 141 in 2019.

    The overall number of cases also saw a rise with 901 reported in 2017, 1,182 in 2018, and 1,226 in 2019. Number of persons arrested saw a marginal dip. While 1,554 persons were arrested in 2017, the subsequent year saw 1,182 arrests. In 2019, 1,226 persons are arrested.

  • Disclosing names of people booked by Delhi Police under UAPA not in larger public interest: Centre

    Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed Lok Sabha in a written reply that the Delhi Police has registered nine cases under the law and arrested 34 people during 2020.

  • Elgar case: HC withdraws praise for late Father Stan Swamy after NIA objects

    By Express News Service
    MUMBAI:  The Bombay High Court on Friday withdrew its oral praise for Late Father Stan Swamy and his work after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) objected to it.

    “We are also human beings and the news of Father Stan Swamy was sudden on July 5. The comment was not on the incarceration of Father Stan Swamy or arrest under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA),” Justice S S Shinde of the Bombay High Court said. 

    “I had said so far as legal issues are concerned, that is different. Suppose you are hurt that I personally said something, I take those words back. Our endeavor is always to be balanced. We have never made the comments… But you see Mr Singh, we are also human beings and suddenly something happens like this…” 

    Anil Singh, the advocate appearing for the NIA had taken objections over the comment made by the High Court judges praising the work done by Father Stan Swamy.

    He said the comments were twisted by the media. During the posthumous bail hearing, the Shinde said he watched the “graceful funeral of Stan Swamy and considering the kind of services he rendered to the society, he had respect for his work.” 

    Meanwhile, Mihir Desai, the advocate representing Stan Swamy, said his death should be probed by the magistrate.

    Desai said the ex-principal of Stain Xavier College Father Frazer should be part of the magistrate inquiry panel as his next kin.

    The inquiry should be done as per human rights guidelines by a magistrate.

    Activists form human chain demanding justice

    Several activists, intellectuals, students and representatives of different social organisations came together at Albert Ekka Chowk in Ranchi on Friday to form a human chain, demanding justice for Father Stan Swamy.

    Despite heavy rains, people stood together with placards protesting against the alleged injustice. According to members of Jharkhand People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the event was a part of the national campaign, called by over 100 organisations, against the institutional murder of Stan Swamy, draconian laws like UAPA and the growing attacks on the right to dissent.

    “Despite heavy rain, more than 100 people participated to form the human chain at Albert Ekka Chowk seeking justice for Father Stan,” said the PUCL 

  • His death an ‘institutional murder’, ‘indifferent courts’ responsible: Stan Swamy’s family, friends

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Terming activist Stan Swamy’s death an “institutional murder”, the family members and friends of the other accused arrested in the Elgar Parishad case said on Tuesday that they held the “negligent jails, indifferent courts and malicious investigating agencies” responsible for it.

    In a statement, they said it was “unconscionable” that someone as old as Swamy and who was suffering poor health was put in jail amid a pandemic. They also said that they feared for the lives of their family members and colleagues in jails who were facing “similar injustices” in jails.

    Swamy was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Ranchi in October 2020 under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the Elgar Parishad case and lodged at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.

    The 84-year-old died at the Holy Family Hospital, where he was admitted on May 29, in Mumbai on Monday, a day after he suffered a cardiac arrest and was put on ventilator support. The Elgar Parishad case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made by some activists at a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017.

    Police claim these speeches triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the city and that the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.

    “We, the friends and family members of those accused in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case, are deeply pained and shaken to the core by the loss of Father Stan Swamy. This is not a natural death but the institutional murder of a gentle soul committed by an inhuman state,” the statement said.

    “Having spent his life amongst the ‘Adivasis’ in Jharkhand, fighting for their right to resources and lands, Father Stan did not deserve to die in this manner, far from his beloved Jharkhand, falsely imprisoned by a vindictive state. Even his COVID disease was not diagnosed in jail and could only be detected after he was moved to the hospital on orders of the (Bombay) high court,” it said.

    Swamy was the last of the 16 people to be arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he was the oldest and the frailest among those arrested, the statement said. “While we grieve at the passing away of Father Stan Swamy, we unequivocally hold the negligent jails, the indifferent courts and the malicious investigating agencies firmly responsible for his unfortunate death. We fear for the health and lives of our family members and colleagues, who are facing similar injustices in the same jails, under the same unaccountable system,” it added.

    The statement further said, “We continue our vigil for everyone’s safety and security, and as Father Stan would appreciate, ‘we refuse to be silent spectators and are ready to pay the price!’” Swamy had said he had never been to Bhima Koregaon.

    NIA officials had said investigations established that he was actively involved in the activities of the CPI (Maoist). The agency also alleged that he was in contact with “conspirators” to further the group’s activities. Others arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case include some of India’s most respected scholars, lawyers, academicians and activists.

  • Grim Reaper, not state, sets activist Stan Swamy free at 84

    Express News Service
    RANCHI/MUMBAI: Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy, arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case, passed away at a Mumbai hospital on Monday shortly before the Bombay High Court took up his plea for bail. He was 84. Swamy had been languishing in Mumbai’s Taloja Jail ever since the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on October 8 last year. The High Court had on May 28 told state prison authorities to shift him to the private Holy Family Hospital in Bandra.

    On July 3, the HC slated his bail plea for hearing on July 6. However, his lawyers moved the court on Monday seeking urgent hearing after his health deteriorated and he was put on ventilator.Earlier on March 23, special judge D E Kothalikar had refused bail even on health grounds saying the “collective interest of the community would outweigh Swamy’s right to personal liberty” given the seriousness of the allegations made against Swamy. “As such the old age and or alleged sickness of the applicant would not go in his favour,” he said.Prima facie Swamy had hatched a “serious conspiracy” with members of a banned Maoist outfit to create unrest and to overthrow the government, the court had ruled, while refusing bail. 

    On Monday, when a bench comprising justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar took up the bail plea around 2.30 pm, counsel Mihir Desai urged the court to hear Dr Ian D’souza, director of the Holy Family Hospital. He broke the news of Swamy’s demise at 1.24 pm. Swamy had suffered cardiac arrest on Saturday and count not be revived, the doctor said, adding, “Cause of death is definitely pulmonary infection and Parkinson’s disease among others.” A shocked bench said, “With all humility at our command, we are sorry to know that Stan Swamy passed away. We have no words to express.”

    Health check:

    Sudha Bharadwaj

    She is 58, has multiple ailments. Her family members say her health deteriorated during her stay in jail, and that she has developed arthritis and a heart condition

    Anand Teltumbde

    At 72, he has pre-existing ailments, his family has pointed out, adding inadequate facilities in prison further aggravated his condition and left him exposed to Covid

    Hany Babu

    At 54, Babu developed acute eye infection in Taloja jail. He now has little vision in the eye due to swelling. He is currently at Breach Candy at his own expense after testing Covid+

    Gautam Navlakha

    He is 70. Taloja prison officials had last year refused to accept a parcel containing new spectacles for him after the old one was stolen in jail

    Surendra Gadling

    53-year-old, he has co-morbidities like hypertension, diabetes and asthma

    Varavara Rao

    The octogenarian got interim bail in March after two years in jail. He was denied even basic healthcare facilities during incarceration