The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
It is clear that the attacks should be investigated, the perpetrators brought to justice, and order restored. Yet there are clear signs that this is not happening. On the contrary, the state government and police appear to be obstructing the course of legal investigations.
The Tripura state government is led by the BJP — and it is allowing the police to use the draconian UAPA law (the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) to crack down on lawyers and journalists who have been uncovering the truth of the events rather than arresting those responsible.
The UAPA has been widely criticised for its harsh implementation. Described as the “anti-terror law”, it permits the authorities to detain people on the charge of terrorism without providing any evidence, meaning that suspects can be imprisoned without charge for an indefinite length of time. Over the past decade it has been used with increasing frequency — and it has destroyed thousands of lives, as innocent people are condemned to spend years awaiting trial and without recourse to bail.
In the case of Mohammed Irfan, a shopkeeper from Maharashtra, it meant nine years in jail without ever coming to trial. He was finally released earlier this year when his case finally came before the court, and the judge found him not guilty.
Even more shockingly, the 84-year-old Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy was also arrested under the Act — the world’s oldest “terrorist”, a man who had spent his long life defending the rights of the marginalised. He was denied bail, and died in prison.
Thousands of others are still being held under the Act; nearly two thousand people were arrested under the UAPA in 2019 alone. Yet only 2% of cases from 2016-19 have led to a conviction. There is rarely enough evidence to prove any wrongdoing. The people being held under the UAPA are, for the most part, no more dangerous than Stan Swamy. But like him, they are people who dared to question or challenge the Indian authorities. The UAPA is the government’s most powerful weapon used to silence them.
