The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday revealed the number of arrests made under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, during 2019-2021.
UAPA is aimed at prevention of unlawful activities associations with its main objective to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles the data on crime as reported to it by States and Union Territories and publishes the same. The report also included the duration of cases pending investigation and cases pending trial under the UAPA during 2019-2021.
As per the published data, 18 persons were arrested in 2019 in Nagaland under UAPA, out of which 10 persons were in the age group18-30 years while three were above 60 years.
In 2020, Persons Arrested (PAR) and Persons Convicted (PCV) under the Act during 2020 in the state was seven.
Five persons belonged to the age group 18-30 years and two persons were between 30-45 years.
In 2021, one person between the age 30-45 years was arrested, convicted of apprehended.
The statement said that as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, subjects of ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are with State Governments and the cases under UAPA are mainly investigated by state police.
The central agencies have been organizing capacity building program for State Police Forces on various aspects of investigation of terror related cases, it said.
Moreover, 49 National Investigation Agency (NIA) special courts have been setup across the country for the speedy trial of terror related cases. The NIA also investigates some of the UAPA cases which are assigned to it, Rai’s statement said
The NCRB report also stated that a total of 12 cases in Nagaland were pending investigation at the end of the year 2019, of which one case was pending for up to six months, six cases were pending for six months to one year and five were pending from one to three years.
Total Cases Pending Investigation at the end of the year 2020 was 11, of which two were pending for six months to one year and nine for one to three years, the report said.
For the year 2021, total Cases Pending Investigation at the end of the year was eight, of which seven were pending for one to three years and five for three to five years.
The statement by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai also said that the conviction is the outcome of an elaborate judicial process, and it depends on various factors, such as, duration of trial, appraisal of evidence, examination of witness, etc.
There are adequate Constitutional, institutional and statute safeguards, including inbuilt safeguards in the UAPA itself, to prevent misuse of the law, it added.
