The Central Government Wednesday informed Parliament that a total of 922, 901 and 1182 cases were registered in the country under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) during the year 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Citing the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), it added that a total of 999, 1554 and 1421 persons were arrested under UAPA during the said period.
The information shared by the Minister of State (MoS) Home Affairs also revealed that there were a total of 232, 272, and 317 cases, wherein chargesheets had been filed by security agencies with respect to cases registered under UAPA during the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Further, in 2017 and 2018, the number of chargeheests submitted in one to two years was 92 and 52 and after two years 31 and 10 respectively.
The MoS (Home) was responding to questions asked by Binoy Viswam, Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Communist Party of India.
Pinjra Tod activists Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal are facing prosecution under UAPA for their alleged role in the Delhi riots. Both were in jail since May this year.
More recently, the Delhi police arrested former JNU student Umar Khalid under UAPA for his alleged role in the Delhi riots. A Court in Delhi remanded him to ten days police custody.
Activist Rona Wilson, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Prof Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudha Bharadwaj etc., are also in jail under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
An accused cannot seek anticipatory bail if they are charged under provisions of the UAPA and the period of investigation can be extended to 180 days from 90 days on the public prosecutor’s request — which means the accused has virtually no chance of getting bail by default. If in the opinion of the Court, the case is prima facie true, it can even refuse regular bail to the accused person.
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