Asaduddin Owaisi blames Congress for ‘prolonged’ detention of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam: ‘UPA amended UAPA’

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has slammed the Congress for the party's role in, what he calls, strengthening the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The Hyderabad Member of Parliament (MP) alleged that the amendments to the UAPA introduced by Congress, when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister, have resulted in ‘prolonged incarceration’ of undertrial prisoners, including scholars Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.

Umar and Sharjeel were recently denied bail by the Supreme Court of India in the case about their role in a ‘larger conspiracy’ with regard to the Delhi riots of 2020.

What did Owaisi say?

“The Supreme Court did not grant bail to two undertrial accused, and the Supreme Court explained why it did not grant bail. During the UPA government, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was amended, and included a definition of what constitutes terrorism,” the AIMIM chief said speaking at an event in Dhule, Maharashtra on Thursday, according to news agency ANI.

The AIMIM chief said that during a speech in the Lok Sabha earlier, he had questioned certain provisions of the UAPA, labelling them “subjective”.

“I am referring to 2007 or 2008. I said in the Parliament: 'Kindly see section 15 (a) of the principal act that states ‘by any other means of whatever nature to cause or likely to cause. This is a subjective matter, and tomorrow Arundhati Roy could be arrested for what she writes. This is subjective, and who defines it?’” Owaisi said.

The AIMIM leader, who is also a trained lawyer, said that the basis for refusing bail to Khalid and Imam was the same he had highlighted in his Lok Sabha speech.

“Using this very basis of 'by any other means', which the Congress had legislated, and about which I had already said that it would be misused, today two young men, who are in jail for five and a half years, didn't get bail. The people who made the law were from the Congress, and the Home Minister was Chidambaram. Has any leader of the Congress ever been in jail for one year, two years, or five and a half years since independence?” he added.

Owaisi pointed to clause 43D of the UAPA, which allows detention of up to 180 days without a chargesheet, asserting that minorities are routinely kept in custody for the maximum period.

“This speech of mine is recorded in the Lok Sabha. I had talked about 180 days of detention under clause 43D: 'I can say with full confidence that in 100 per cent of the cases where minorities are arrested, they will be in detention for 180 days without a chargesheet',” he said.

(With agency inputs)