Cases of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) registered by different law enforcement agencies are witnessing a worrisome trend where total acquittals are more than double the number of convictions.
Since 2014, except one year, the acquittals have been much higher than convictions consistently. This trend has not changed as 2022 saw the highest number of acquittals since 2014.
Official data shared by the Ministry of Home Affairs reveals that from 2014 to 2022, a total of 8,719 cases were registered under UAPA. Of these, there were acquittals in 567 cases, while 222 resulted in convictions.
According to the data compiled by MHA, in 2014, 976 cases were registered, but that year only nine resulted in convictions, with 24 cases acquitted. This pattern continued with some variation over the years. In 2015, total UAPA cases filed in the country by different police and agencies were 897. That year, 11 convictions were recorded, and 65 cases were acquitted.
The pattern of high acquittals and low conviction remained same in the year 2016 where conviction count was 11 and 22 acquittals were recorded.
The year 2017 marked a minor increase in convictions (34) and accused were acquitted in 33 cases where total 901 cases were registered by different law enforcement agencies. However, in 2018 and 2019, 1,182 cases and 1,226 cases were registered but despite high number of registrations, the acquittal rates remained very high. In 2018, courts acquitted accused in 68 cases and in 2019 total 64 cases saw acquittals.
In 2020, there was a notable rise in acquittals to 99, while convictions decreased to 27. This trend persisted next year too in 2021, with 39 acquittals and 27 convictions.
The year 2022 saw the highest number of acquittals at 153 while there were 36 convictions.
What Experts Say
News18 spoke to various officials, including former DGs of NIA, who refused to come on record on the issue but said investigations under UAPA are the toughest.
The DG who headed NIA during these years said: “These cases that saw acquittals do not belong only to NIA. In fact, the state police also probed cases of UAPA and because of states’ poor and amateur quality probes, acquittals are high. NIA has a conviction rate of over 90 per cent and officers probe the cases on merit. The figures are concerning, and states should fix the loopholes.”
Another former NIA DG also pointed fingers at the state police but added that probing terror-related cases is not easy and requires a lot of time. “In these cases, the accused get killed if they are terrorists. Almost all cases have direct or indirect foreign link which is the toughest part to prove as probe agencies struggle to get direct evidence and file charge sheet based on secondary evidence. State police are also not very keen to probe these cases. Only highlighted cases get transferred to NIA,” they said.
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