Less than 3% of the arrests made under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act between 2015 and 2020 have resulted in convictions, shows the report.
Out of 8,371 persons arrested under India’s top terror law, only 235 were convicted in the five-year period, the People’s Union of Civil Liberties report showed, citing data from the National Crime Record Bureau.
The acquittal rate of the draconian law is 97.2%, the report said, claiming that the prosecution under UAPA lack merit in huge majority of the cases.
The loose definition of “terrorist act” under UAPA has made the provision a “draconian and undemocratic one,” said the report “UAPA: Criminalising Dissent and State Terror.”
Moreover, under the UAPA getting bail is tough, and so the accused spend most of the trial period inside prison, the report noted.
The rights group in its report also questioned the NCRB’s methodology of keeping records. Since UAPA trials take three to five years to complete, the government agency’s data is often insufficient to give the entire picture, it said.
According to a The Hindu report, under the draconian UAPA, 4,690 persons were arrested between 2018 and 2020, but only 3% were convicted.
Of the 1,338 persons convicted under the UAPA in Uttar Pradesh between 2018 and 2020, only 6% got convicted, while none of the other 94% got bail, the newspaper reported.
Reacting to this, Opposition leaders raised concerns about the individuals, specially, dissenters who were arrested under the draconian UAPA.
“Most of the 97% acquitted were the voices of dissent, arrested on false charges by the vindictive Modi govt,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
“While BJP abused the law for tyranny, high chances exist that many culprits would be roaming free,” he said.
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