By Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Strongly condemning the Tripura Police action against the fact-finding team of Supreme Court lawyers, former Bombay High Court judge and chairperson of the Movement Against UAPA and Other Repressive Laws (MURL), Justice B G Kolse Patil alleged on Wednesday that BJP governments at the Center and in states have been frequently invoking draconian act (UAPA) to suppress democratic voices in the country. He urged the peace loving and concerned citizens to come forward, unite and resist these oppressive actions of the State.

It is reported that the team of advocates of the Supreme Court, who had visited Tripura on a fact finding mission, on the attack on Minorities were obstructed by the Agartala Police and also issued notices to Advocate Mukesh PUCL Delhi and Advocate Ansar Indori under Section 13 of UAPA and sections of IPC. The charges initiated against them include Sections 153-A and B (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of Religion, Race, Place of Origin, Residence, Language, etc), Section 469 (Forgery for Purpose of Harmful Information), Section 503 (Criminal Intimidation), Section 504 ((Willful Insult with intent to provoke the Breach of Peace/Create Discord) and Section120B (Punishment for Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 13 of UAPA.

In a press statement, justice Patil said “the Issuance of such notices to the Lawyers/Advocates is nothing but a blatant attempt to terrorise and intimidate them from speaking the truth and exposing the Government fallacies”.

The invocation of Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is contrary to law, improper and a vindictive act against these Advocates, he explained.

“We and the general public who believe in the Democratic process and law of the land, stand in full solidarity with these Advocates in their fight against Communalism and Religious Polarization,” the statement added.

The cases against Advocate Mukesh and Advocate Indori have been registered at West Agartala Police Station which mentioned “the social media posts circulated by you/statements made by you for promoting enmity between religious groups as well as provoking the people of different religious communities to cause Breach of Peace.”

Supreme Court Lawyers Ehtesham Hashmi and Amit Srivastava along with Advocate Mukesh and Advocate Indori have released their fact finding report on the Tripura Riots, on Tuesday, 2nd November 2021 at the National Capital’s Press Club. In their report titled as “Humanity Under Attack in Tripura; #Muslim Lives Matter” they have directly blamed the BJP-led State Government for the misery caused to the Minority Muslim Community. They said that if the Tripura State Government had acted on time, it could have thwarted and controlled the premeditated violence against the Minority Muslim Community, but it allegedly gave free hands to the Hindutva Mobs.

Justice Patil alleged that “the BJP – ruled Governments both at the Centre, as well as the State wants to benefit from the polarization of the two communities by spreading communal discord during the forthcoming elections to achieve their Hindutva based political objectives”.

He said fact-finding team members registered their protests against the planned religious hysteria created by the Tripura state Government and exposed the malicious intent of the BJP amongst the locals of Tripura, which was not well received by the State Government and Local Administration.