Chairman of Movement Against UAPA and Other Repressive Laws (MURL) Justice BG Kolse Patil took strong exception to the team of Supreme Court advocates who had visited Tripura on a fact-finding mission in regards to the attack on minorities, obstructed by the Agartala police.
Justice Patil, who is a former judge of the Bombay High Court, said that the police issued notices against Advocate Mukesh, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Delhi, and Advocate Ansar Indori under Section 13 of UAPA and sections of IPC.
The police have filed charges against them under several sections, including 153A (provoking enmity/hatred between communities), 153B (assertions prejudicial to national integration), 503 (criminal intimidation), and 504 (intentional insult to cause breach of peace) of the IPC and under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Condemning it as an act of suppression of the voice of dissent by the Tripura government, the MURL in a statement said, the cases against Lawyer Indori amd Mukesh registered at West Agartala Police Station which mention “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.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court lawyers fact-finding team which includes Ehtesham Hashmi and Amit Srivastava along with Advocate Mukesh and Advocate Indori released their report on the riots titled, “Humanity Under Attack in Tripura: #MuslimLivesMatter.”
In the report they said if the Tripura government had acted on time, it could have thwarted and controlled the premeditated violence against the minority Muslim community. However, they alleged, that the government gave free hands to the Hindutva mobs.
The report released at the Press Club in Delhi, blamed the BJP-led State government for the misery caused to the minority community.
The Bhartiya Janata Party-ruled governments both at the Centre, and the State, want to benefit from the polarization of the two communities by spreading communal discord in view of the forthcoming elections to achieve their “Hindutva-based political objectives,” the fact-finding team lawyers said.
MURL 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 government fallacies. The invocation of Section 13 of the UAPA is contrary to law, improper and a vindictive act against these advocates.”
“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,” it said urging, “We the law abiding and peace loving citizens of India to come forward, unite and resist these excesses and inhuman oppressive laws.”
