Hyderabad:CPI leaders held a protest meeting seeking revocation of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967. Addressing the protest at Indira Park, CPI leader Chada Venkat Reddy said, “The UAPA was brought by the Congress government was given more teeth by the Modi government. They kept 90-percent-disabled Saibaba in jail for 10 years. BJP intends to change the constitution and is using UAPA to throttle opposition voices. They were either killed like Gowri Lankesh or jailed like Varavara Rao. All the democrats should come together and fight this situation.”
Civil liberties activist Prof. G. Haragopal said that the conviction rate under the UAPA is just three per cent. “The Act allows detention of people without trial and bail for any number of years. In the Bhima Koregaon case, the trial has not started yet. The society responded after the death of Saibaba. It would have been good if the same response had come earlier. The state resorted to a vindictive attitude resulting in his death. There is no place for UAPA in a democracy,” he said, adding the fight should go on until this law is scrapped.
Those who attended the meeting include CPI leaders E.T. Narasimha, V.S. Bose, B. Prabhakar, M. Adi Reddy, Telangana Dalit Rights Forum leader Marupaka Anil Kumar, political prisoners release committee leader Balla Ravi and Human Rights Forum leader Anwar Khan among others.
