The Madhya Pradesh government collared the most persons–300 in 2017 and 495 in 2018–while Uttar Pradesh comes second having arrested 171 people in 2017 and 167 in 2018
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states have used the draconian laws National Security Act (NSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) the most in the past four years, shows the data released by the government.
The state-wise details provided by the home ministry in Parliament on Wednesday show that 1,198 persons have been arrested during 2017-18 under the NSA in the country of which 1,033 (86%) have been hauled up in the two BJP-ruled states — Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The Madhya Pradesh government collared the most persons – 300 in 2017 and 495 in 2018 – while Uttar Pradesh comes second having arrested 171 people in 2017 and 167 in 2018.
Nagaland comes third having arrested 23 people in 2017 and 17 in 2018 under the NSA, which is far behind the two top states MP and UP. Manipur arrested 6 persons in 2017 and Chhattisgarh arrested only two persons one in 2017 and one in 2018. The rest of the states made no arrests under the NSA during 2017-18.
The Madhya Pradesh administration arrested 300 persons in 2017 out of which 133 have been released and 167 are in detention. The state government nabbed 495 persons in 2018 of which 333 have been released while 162 are in detention.
The Uttar Pradesh government held 171 persons in 2017 of which 93 have been released while 78 are in detention. It arrested 167 persons in 2018 of which 57 have been released while 110 are in custody.
These details have been provided by the Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy in the Rajya Sabha in a response to questions regarding the issue. A parliamentarian had asked the details of the last five years but the government provided the details of only two years.
Similarly, the data of UAPA cases show that this draconian Act has also been invoked in the BJP-ruled states the most during 2014-18. Manipur (2120), Assam(908) and Jammu and Kashmir(666) are the top three states where cases under the UAPA have been filed the most during 2014-18. Jharkhand (337), Uttar Pradesh (262) and Bihar (232) are other three states where maximum cases under the UAPA have been filed in the four years.
Kerala, where 208 cases under the UAPA have been filed during 2014-19, is also among those states where the maximum number of the invocations of the draconian Act occurred. A total of 4,964 cases under the UAPA have been filed during 2014-18 of which the highest number of cases (1182) were filed in 2018.
During 2014-18, 4,878 cases under the UAPA have been filed of which only 139 persons have been convicted while 385 have been acquitted.
The data related to the UAPA cases have been compiled by Adv. K.P. Mohamad Shareef, Coordinator, People’s Movement Against UAPA, from the National Crime Records Bureau and the news reports.