The Tripura Police has booked a Delhi-based lawyer under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly sharing fake information about the Tripura violence on social media.
The state police registered the case against Mukesh, a Delhi-based advocate for the People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL), for allegedly promoting enmity among two religious groups as well as provoking the people of different religious communities to cause breach of peace on the recent violence in Panisagar, where a mosque, few houses & shops were reportedly vandalised by activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
The FIR is registered u/s 13 of UAPA , and various other provisions of Indian Penal Code which include Sections 153A/153B (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc), 469 (forgery for the purpose of harming the information), 503 (Criminal intimidation), 504 (Punishment insult with an intent to provoke the breach of peace), 120B (Punishment Criminal conspiracy).
The state police also booked another lawyer Ansar Indori, who with Mukesh had released a report, titled Humanity under attack in Tripura’ on Tuesday, revealing at least 12 mosques, nine shops, three houses of Muslims were targeted by Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Jagaran Manch activists during the violence last month.
A fact-finding team comprising advocate Estesham Hashmi, a Supreme Court lawyer, advocate Amit Srivastav, Co-ordinator of Lawyers for Democracy, NCHRO national secretary Ansar Indori and PUCL member Mukesh Kumar visited Tripura for three days. They went to areas of alleged attacks on Muslims in the aftermath of religious vandalism at Durga Puja pandals and temples in Bangladesh, claiming that minority communities were targeted at Panisagar in North Tripura.
The fact-finding team demanded the constitution of an inquiry committee headed by a retired High Court judge to investigate the incidents, compensation to victims, reparation of damaged religious places etc.
On 03.11.2021 the West Agartala police station issued a notice u/s 41A of Cr.p.c against two advocates Mukesh and Ansar Indori who are among the four members out of the fact-finding team. The advocates have been to appear for questioning by November 10. The police also directed the Advocate to remove the alleged posts on social media.
The Tripura Police reportedly booked 71 persons for allegedly provocative social media posts.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought an action taken report from the Tripura government on the October 26 violence.
It is pertinent to note that the Tripura High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the case and sought a report on the violence from the state government.