Tripura Police Books 4 SC Lawyers Under UAPA Over Social Media Post

The Tripura Police has booked four Supreme Court lawyers under Section 13 of the UAPA and various sections of the IPC for their social media posts regarding Tripura violence.

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New Delhi: The Tripura Police booked four Supreme Court lawyers under the stringent UAPA and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, reported PTI. According to a senior official, the lawyers were booked over their social media posts following the recent violence targeted towards Muslims in the state. 

The case was registered against the four lawyers on November 3 at the West Agartala Police Station. Cases have been registered under various sections of the IPC which includes 153 (a) and (b) related to promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race etc, 469 (forgery), 504 (intentional insult, provocation), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), besides section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Superintendent of Police of West Tripura district Manik Das informed that the lawyers had been served notice to appear for questioning on November 10. The notice further states to delete the post.

According to Das, a group of lawyers visited Tripura last Friday after which the police noticed some social media posts. On the basis of those posts, a case was registered and checked whether those were uploaded by the lawyers or were fake. 

According to the report, in the social media posts in question, the lawyers had expressed their discontent over the communal incident that happened in Tripura. The lawyers also claimed in the post that the Muslim community, including women, was targeted in the violence and a mosque was vandalized. 

The team had demanded suitable action against those who spread rumors and against those officials who remained inactive during the violence. 

The lawyers which received the notices were Estesham Hashmi, lawyer of the Supreme Court of India, advocate Amit Srivastav, Coordinator of Lawyers for Democracy, NCHRO National Secretary Ansar Indori and PUCL member Mukesh Kumar.

On October 26, a mosque was vandalized and two shops were burnt down in North Tripura’s Chamtila. Moreover, three houses and a few shops, reportedly belonging to Muslims, were also plundered near North Tripura’s Rowa Bazar. These incidents had happened during a rally carried out by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad following the communal violence in Bangladesh.