Drop UAPA charges against youth arrested in Parliament security breach case: PUCL

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has condemned the UAPA charges which have been filed against those arrested on December 13, 2023, for jumping over the visitor’s gallery in the Parliament and releasing harmless smoke from canisters.

“All the 6 persons were booked for offences under sections 120B, 452, 153, 186, and 353 of the IPC. What is very disturbing however, is that the youth have also been implicated for having committed ‘terrorist offences’ under sections 16 and 18 of UAPA,” said the PUCL.

Undoubtedly what Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan did with assistance from the others does amount to an unprecedented security breach in the parliament building and has to be taken seriously from the point of view of the safety and security of parliamentarians, said a release issued by the PUCL.

“However, it is an egregious and condemnable misuse of the law to implicate them for committing terrorist activities, especially when it was widely reported that the main motivation behind the audacious, albeit dangerous act, of the 6–member group was to highlight in a sensational manner, the nation-wide problems of unemployment, inequality, atrocities against women, the Manipur violence, authoritarianism and other issues of common social and political concern,” added the release.

The PUCL said the use of a “draconian law such as the UAPA against the arrested youth is nothing but an abuse” of the legal process. It also called upon all democratic minded citizens and groups to unitedly demand repeal of UAPA. The PUCL reiterated its demand that the cases under the UAPA against the six young people be withdrawn by the state, the accused be released and the state desist from filing such frivolous UAPA cases against all those who dissent.