In seven years, 10,552 Indians have been arrested under UAPA – but only 253 convicted

Mohammed Ilyas, 38, and Mohammed Irfan, 33, were arrested in August 2012 by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorist Squad under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (among other charges) and accused of being linked to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba. After being in jail for nine years, they were cleared of all charges by court, owing to lack of evidence, and released in June.

This is neither the first time or the last that the Act has made headlines for alleged wrongful arrest. In fact, this month, police in Tripura is facing ire for invoking UAPA against 102 social media account holders, including those of journalists and activists, over alleged clashes and attacks on mosques in Tripura. The Editors Guild of India released a press statement expressing their shock over the actions of the Tripura police.

Each year (between 2014 and 2020), on average, 985 cases under UAPA are registered and the number of pending cases rise by 14.38% every year. Moreover, an average of 40.58% of the cases up for investigation in the seven years was sent for trial and 4.5% of them are completed….

The article originally appeared in Scroll.in.