Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, on Friday, said that “the amended UAPA is a menace to democracy.” Tharoor made these comments on the release of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan’s release.

“The release of SiddiqueKappan after 28 months in jail reminds us that UAPA allows Govt to detain people indefinitely without charge. It took the Supreme Court to finally reaffirm ‘bail not jail’. The amended UAPA is a menace to democracy, as I warned when opposing its introdn in LS,” said Tharoor in a tweet.

Tharoor said “when Siddique Kappan asked for reading material in jail he was offered only books in Hindi, a language he does not know, and denied books in English or Malayalam, the only languages he can read. In the land of Mahatma Gandhi, is this the level of our humanity?”

On Thursday, Siddique Kappan, a Muslim journalist from Kerala, left jail after more than 851 days after being detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police while en route to the Hathras residence of a young Dalit woman who had allegedly been murdered and gang-raped by upper-caste Hindu men.