Nearly 53% of persons arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were below the age of 30, the Union Home Ministry (MHA) informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the UAPA has been amended in the past keeping in view the requirement and “presently no amendments in the UAPA are under consideration.” He was responding to questions from members on whether the Government planned to amend the existing Act in the light of recent evidence about the large number of acquittals and for preventing the harassment of innocent people in the wake of misuse of UAPA.
Under UAPA, the main anti-terrorism legislation in the country, it is difficult to get bail and the police or any other investigating agency get upto 180 days to file a chargesheet, against the usual 60 days in other criminal cases.
The Minister’s reply added that data regarding “number of arrested persons of specific age group of below 25 years” is not maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). However, the number of persons arrested under the UAPA whose age was below 30 years in 2018, 2019 and 2020 stood at 755, 1,096 and 650 respectively. The total number of such arrests made during the same period stood at 1,421, 1,948 and 1,321.
Most arrests in U.P.
In 2020, the maximum arrests under UAPA of persons below 30 years of age was made in Uttar Pradesh (205) followed by Jammu and Kashmir (166), Manipur (113) and Jharkhand (35).
“Conviction is an outcome of an elaborate judicial process and is dependent on various factors, such as, duration of trial, appraisal of evidence, examination of witnesses, etc. There are adequate constitutional, institutional and statutory safeguards including inbuilt safeguards in the UAPA itself, to prevent misuse of the law,” the Minister’s reply stated. It said that the information regarding custodial deaths of the persons in custody under the UAPA is not maintained by the NCRB.
