The struggle of demanding the release of political prisoners framed under the yoke of laws like Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act i.e. UAPA is intensifying day by day. Positive that intellectuals are coming to the forefront to raise their bold voices when perils of neo-fascism are threatening the country at an unparalleled scale. Such initiatives are the last straw in saving[Read More…]
We are happy in releasing to the public the first part of the study of how the Indian state has weaponised the UAPA law against anyone who dares to challenge the Indian state and assert their fundamental rights to information, association, dissent and democracy. As part of the Campaign to repeal the UAPA, we had undertaken to study the[Read More…]
Very recently, the CPIM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has moved the Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court quashing the UAPA cases filed against alleged Maoist leader Roopesh. The entire sequence of events, as explained below, brings out once again the double standard adopted by the CPIM in questions of implementation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).[Read More…]
A Chhattisgarh court on July 14, 2022 acquited 121 tribals in an UAPA case after 5 years in jail. The accused were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly assisting Maoists in the 2017 Burkapal attack, which killed 25 CRPF personnel. Of the 121 accused, seven were minors who were released earlier and one died during the[Read More…]
The PUCL is monitoring with extreme concern the precarious health condition of Atiq Ur Rehman who was unjustly accused and arrested by the UP police in early October, 2020 for daring to go with journalist Siddique Kappan to Hathras (UP) to report on the rape incident of a 19-year old Dalit woman. Atiq, Kappan and 2 others were charged under[Read More…]
The PUCL strongly condemns the Tripura Police for registering a FIR dated 03rd November, 2021 under the UAPA and other draconian provision of the IPC against a team of advocates from Delhi, the “Lawyers for Democracy”, for conducting a Fact Finding Enquiry into communal violence incidents in Tripura in mid-end October, 2021. It is clear that the police have[Read More…]
The invocation of UAPA charges against members of a fact-finding team shortly after they released its findings on the communal violence in Tripura, is shocking and condemnable. Besides S. 13 of UAPA (punishment for ‘unlawful activity’), a slew of IPC offences has also been invoked: 153 A and B of IPC (promoting enmity and anti-national activities), 120 B, 503, 504[Read More…]
Feminists, jan sangathans, mass organizations, collectives, students, trade unionists, farm workers, fisher people, members of Adivasi, Dalit and Muslim communities, displaced persons, civil liberties activists, journalists, academics, youth, as well persons facing political persecution joined the events held across States and expressed their solidarity with Gulfisha Fatima. Numerous cities and towns across the country were part of this solidarity action,[Read More…]
By Constitutional Conduct Group Dear Citizens of India, We are a group of retired officers of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. As members of the Constitutional Conduct Group, we believe in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian Constitution and in safeguarding its values.[Read More…]
It is now out in the open.There seems to be quite a lot of dissatisfaction in the higher judiciary about the burden placed on their shoulders by the rising number of UAPA cases.The phrasing of the act is so wide and sweeping that it gives a government powers to practically put under arrest and detain anyone it finds inconvenient or[Read More…]
Activists, Advocates and commoners came together virtually to discuss and demand the repeal of the UAPA and underlined the legal, socio-cultural issues around it in a consultation organised by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties. ——– IN a session packed with human stories of abuse and misuse of law where activists and commoners were abused, the People’s Union for Civil[Read More…]
In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor G. N. Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”[Read More…]
In November, 67 Adivasi, Dalit and human rights activists were booked by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana police under UAPA and charged with sedition for alleged “maoist links”. In late-November, police officials in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana booked 67 Adivasi, Dalit and human rights activists under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and under sedition charges for alleged “maoist[Read More…]
This letter was written from the prison at a time when the media predicted imminent arrest of Sitaram Yechuri, which was later denied by the Delhi Police. But many other activists including student leader Umar Khalid were arrested and detained on the same charges. Police is witch hunting several eminent activists and democrats on foisted charges utilising the pandemic situation.[Read More…]
The authors, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Zibalatt, in their famous book titled “How Democracies Die: What History Reveals about Future” have said that “Democracies can die with a coup d’etat- or they can die slowly. This happens most deceptively in piecemeal fashion, with the election of an authoritarian leader, the abuse of governmental power and the complete repression of opposition.[Read More…]
To the world India is known as the largest democracy in the world. If you considered holding elections at regular interval as the only criteria of being a democracy you can give this tag. But, the dismal condition of freedom of speech and the right to dissent in the country is a real cause of concern for the activists and[Read More…]
A grim scenario is unfolding itself in India over the last 6 years and 2 months. Social activists are being arrested on fabricated charges under Draconian laws – where in bail is denied – and incarcerated with no end in sight to their trial. The period of imprisonment itself becomes a long punishment. Many of the detenue are from the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Saumya and Harsh Kumar Peasant leader and RTI Activist Akhil Gogoi from Assam booked under the amended UAPA act 2019 tested positive for COVID-19 in jail. He has been allegedly booked for his role in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act last year under the sections 120B(punishment of criminal conspiracy), 153A(unlawful association) and 153B(imputations, assertion prejudicial to national-integration),[Read More…]
Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey Akhil Gogoi-a peasant leader and Right to Information activist from Assam has been in jail since December 2019. His crime is that he exercised his fundamental right of speech and expression by protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The police took him in custody on December 12, 2019, and since then he has been[Read More…]
The relationships between political parties and people are going through a turbulent transformation during this historical period in India. To what extend have the political parties strived to be the true representations of people of this country is a question which needs some clarification. We have elected members of parliament, but whether they are in a position to play the[Read More…]
Over the last two weeks, across New Delhi, numerous activists and students have been targeted and harassed by the Delhi Police. Operating under an open-ended FIR, the police are attempting to accuse these persons, many of whom are engaged in providing indispensable relief work to workers and people bereft of food and other supplies due to the ill-planned COVID-19 induced[Read More…]
The Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Bill 2019 has been passed after days of deadlock between the government and the opposition parties in Rajya Sabha. The bill gives Central government the POWER to designate/tag/label individuals as terrorists on the basis of suspicion without following any formal judicial process. When designated as terrorists an individual can appeal to Union home secretary, who[Read More…]
“An individual’s psychology is the birth place of Terrorism, rather than an institution. If, in the first place, an individual is stopped from attracting other individuals into terrorism by providing ideological and financial support, this menace can be finished” is what this country’s Hon’ble Home minster said in the open Parliament session while quashing the arguments of opposition on the[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar: On 28 January, 2019, Shatrughan Biswal and Prashant Parida along with Manjulata Muduli were remanded to Alipingal Jail in Jagatsinghpur district after being denied bail by the Sessions Court. They have been charged under sedition and sections 10 and 13 of the UAPA. Manjulata Muduli has already spent more than 10 years as an under trial implicated in the[Read More…]
We are going through one of the most repressive times in post-Independent India where the fundamental rights of expression and the right to form any organization or association that can question government policies or fight for rights of the people have been criminalized. The government, armed with acts like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), is coming down heavily on all those standing up for the rights of[Read More…]
Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights – Tamil Nadu, (CPDR-TN) strongly condemns the arrest of Advocate Murugan, Secretary Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL), on 8th January by the Tamilnadu Q branch police. The police had gone to his house in the early morning 4 o’clock, in the pretext of search operations with the search warrant order from Karur[Read More…]
The Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), a Pune based cultural troupe made up of Dalit and working class musicians and poets came together after the anti-Muslim Gujarat pogroms of 2002. Their songs became more militant due to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of anti-Dalit atrocities at Ramabai Nagar in 1997 and Khairlanji in 2006. Some of these songs and performances[Read More…]
More recently, the series of incidents that have happened in Kerala is highly alarming about the times we live in. There have been a series of arrests in Kerala under the current CPM Government on the allegations of disrespecting national anthem, supporting the Maoists and on suspicions of Maoist links following the shocking Nilambur fake encounter killing
The human rights violations on Abdul Nasar Maudany still remain as a deep question on the functioning of Indian democracy. He was arrested on August 17, 2010, adding him as the 31st person `accused’ to be involved in the Bangalore blast case of 2008. Maudany’s name was not there in the first list of the accused persons. However, it was[Read More…]
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
