1,071 arrested in Assam under UAPA in 7 years, only 4 convicted

The arrest of 19-year-old Barshashree Buragohain from Assam on May 17, for her alleged pro-ULFA poetry, has brought back the issue of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPA) to the forefront. 

Meanwhile, the government and the police department have denied she was arrested because of her poem. She was instead arrested for supporting the banned militant outfit and urging others to join the group, they said.

One should reflect the number of UAPA convictions and total arrests made under the act in the last seven years.

According to information received from the Home Department, 1071 people have been arrested under the UAPA in Assam in the last seven years i.e. 2014-2020 but only 4 of them have been convicted. 

While looking into the numbers, one cannot deny the number of arrests has been big but only 331 chargesheets have been filed in the court as opposed to a total of 1071 cases.

This perhaps points to the fact that in many cases, evidence is not gathered before even arresting a person and incarcerating them under the UAPA. 

While the Smart Assam Police showed valour and arrested them under the UAPA, 99 percent of the cases went unnoticed or were left out after failing to gather evidence and file a chargesheet in court. 

One of the examples is farmer leader and sitting MLA Akhil Gogoi who was arrested under the UAPA during the CAA movement.

During that time, NIA’s special court blamed Akhil Gogoi for inciting terrorism, and sedition, in front of the people who were agitating against the government.

As per information of the Home Department there were 148 cases of unequal taxes under the UAP Act in 2014.
Only one person was convicted in the case of filing of 45 complaints. Menawhile, in the year 2015, there were 103 cases, 38 filed complaints and 2 others convicted.

According to the information, 216 cases were registered in the state under the UAP Act in 2016, 133 in 2017, 308 in 2018, 87 in 2019 and 76 in 2020.

On the contrary, 30 cases were filed under the Act in 2016, 102 in 2017, 65 in 2018, 30 in 2019 and 21 in 2020. 
According to the Home Department, one person was convicted in 2017 but none of the accused were convicted in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Naturally, the question is, has the Assam police arrested some people and imposed the UAPA section through misuse of power?

Delhi Police had also detained Devangana Kalita of Assam in Tihar jail for more than a year under the UAPA Act for allegedly agitating against CAA. 

Similarly, Maharashtra police also arrested two youths -- Mohammed Ilyas and Mohammad Ifan -- in Maharashtra in August 2012.

The UAPA Act was imposed on the two on suspicion of being in touch with Lashkar e Taiba. They were acquitted by the court in June 2021 after spending nearly nine years in jail. This is the strength of the UAPA Act. Assam seems to have entered the undeclared competition of unwanted records with the second highest number of UAPA cases in the country.

Barshashree Buragohain becomes the latest to be arrested under the UAPA. Her arrest has created ripples of reaction across the state as well as the country as she remains confined behind bars for expressing her voice on social media through her poetry.