'It’s become a new normal in Indian politics for students and activists to be incarcerated across India for expressing dissent and being vocal about certain actions and policies of the Narendra Modi government. The draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act – UAPA – has been clamped on almost all such persons, even for the flimsiest of charges...
'A case has been registered against the former executive director of human rights advocacy group Amnesty International Aakar Patel on June 5 for posting “offensive” content on social media, which allegedly sought to instigate a section of people against the government.
'The Delhi Police Wednesday invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Jawaharlal Nehru University PhD scholar Sharjeel Imam, months after arresting him in connection with the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019. The development comes two weeks after the police accused Imam, 31, of allegedly instigating riots at the university on December 13 and 15 through “seditious” speeches outside campus, during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) last year...'
'Safoora Zargar, a research scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university, spent her first day of Ramadan in the high-security Tihar jail in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The 27-year old, in the second trimester of her first pregnancy, was arrested on April 10 and subsequently charged under the stringent anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 2019 (UAPA), by the Delhi police. Zargar was associated with the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), which organised weeks of peaceful protests in the capital against a citizenship law passed last December...'
'The Delhi Police on Tuesday booked Jamia Millia Islamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, in a case related to communal violence in North East Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act in February, PTI reported. They also booked former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid under the Act...'
'A case that reeks of brazen abuse of power at a time when citizens are hard pressed to place full faith on the state machinery to contain the coronavirus pandemic has come to light in Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh police arrested Dr. Ashish Mittal on March 23, 2020. At the time, chief minister Adityanath had already imposed a lockdown.
'While quashing the "Leave India" notice issued to a Polish student for participating in an anti-CAA rally, the Calcutta High Court applied the principle that even a foreigner, who is in Indian soil, has the fundamental right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India...'
'The recitation of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem by students protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on campus last year was “unsuitable to the time and place”, a committee set up by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur has concluded. It has also found the role of five teachers and six students, who participated in the protest, “to be less than desirable” and recommended that the institute should “counsel” them...'
'Citizens Against Hate (CAH), a Delhi based collective of individuals and groups concerned with rising trend of hate mobilisation and crime. They released a report titled “Everyone has been Silenced – Police Excesses against anti-CAA protestors in Uttar Pradesh and the post-violence reprisal” put together by a team of human rights experts, defenders and lawyers.
'The Allahabad high court has asked the Yogi Adityanath government to take down all posters in Lucknow giving photographs and personal details of people involved with the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests. A high court bench headed by Chief Justice Govind Mathur had taken suo moto cognisance of the matter. The bench said the state’s action violated Article 14 of the constitution and was an “unwarranted interference in privacy of people”, LiveLaw reported. The district magistrate and police commissioner have been asked to submit a compliance report to the court by March 16...'
