Casr tripura fft uapa cases november 7th 2021

1. Condemn the targeting of lawyers exposing anti-Muslim violence in Tripura!
Withdraw the charges against the Fact-Finding team and social media users and
prosecute the perpetrators of violence in Tripura!
November 7th, 2021
On November 3rd, the Tripura Police sent notices to four Delhi based lawyers charging them under several
sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). These
lawyers, AdvocateAnsarIndori, secretaryofNationalConfederationofHumanRights Organisations (NCHRO),
Advocate Mukesh, member of People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Advocate Amit Srivatsava, member of
LawyersforDemocracyand SupremeCourtlawyer Ehtesham Hashmi, had recently conducteda two-day fact-
finding following news of communal violence in Tripura. Based on their investigation, a report was released
titled ‘Humanity under attack in Tripura, #MuslimLivesMatter’ at a press conference held on November 2nd at
the Press Club of India in New Delhi. This report documented instances of communal violence in Tripura that
occurred over ten days following communal violence in Bangladesh on October 15th. This included vandalism
of 12 mosques as well as nine shops and three houses belonging to Muslims and several instances of arson.
The report called for an inquiry committee headed by a retired High Court judge to probe these incidents, a
separate FIR to be filed based on the complaints of victims and demanded compensation for losses suffered.
These actions of the four lawyers have been deemed unlawful and their claims fraudulent by the Tripura
Police. The notice issued to the four lawyers includes charges Section 13 of UAPA and IPC Sections 120 (B),
153 (A), 153 (B), 469, 471, 503 and 504. These impute inciting commission of unlawful activity as well as
criminal conspiracy, forgery and fraudulent claims, criminal intimidation and intentional insult with intent to
provoke breach of peace. The notice demands that the lawyers appear at the West Agartala Police Station on
November 10th for social media posts that allegedly promote enmity between religious groups and provoke
people of different religious communities to cause breach of peace. The police have also branded photographs
taken by the lawyers during the fact-finding as fake and demanded that they be deleted from social media.
That a mere release of a fact finding report and circulation of photographs on social media can warrant the
levying of such grave charges including the invocation of Section 13 of the UAPA paints a sorry picture of the
state ofdemocracyandhumanrights in the country.Astonishingly, reportshaveemergedoffourNGOworkers
on a fact-finding visit arrested by the Tripura police.
The communal violence in Tripura last month was particularly shocking in its vindictiveness towards the
Muslim community. Less than 9% of the state’s population, Muslims in Tripura were subjected to over ten
days of terror. Hindutva organisations including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran
Manch and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mobilised widely, held rallies and organised marches in
Muslim localities. Communal sloganeering,threats ofviolence, stonepelting, vandalism and even actsof arson
were perpetrated with impunity throughout the state supposedly to avenge the incidents in Bangladesh. On
October 26th, following a massive rally by the VHP, a mosque was vandalised and several shops set ablaze in
Chamtilla in North Tripura. This prompted the Tripura High Court to take suo-moto cognizance and direct the
BJP-led State Government to file an affidavit on the measures it had taken to ensure the maintenance of peace.
The high court also recommended that peace committees be established throughout the state.
Following the High Court’s intervention, the BJP-led State Government promptly declared the violence a
conspiracy by outside elements to malign the state. Based on a complaint by an RTI activist, the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) wrote to the Tripura Police on November 2nd asking for a response on
their role in investigating the violence. The Tripura police has responded to these developments by filing an
FIR against the four lawyers and by sending notices to Twitter demanding 68 accounts be shut down and
details of their IP addresses and phone numbers be provided. They have also filed an FIR on November 5th

2. against 102 social media accounts, which, besides the 68 Twitter accounts, also include 32 Facebook accounts
and 2 YouTube accounts. Among the 102 names are several Indian and international journalists and activists
including Aarif Shah, CJ Werleman, Jehangir Ali, Salim Engineer, Sartaj Alam, Sharjeel Usmani, Shyam Meera
Singh and former chairperson of the Delhi Minority Commission Zafarul Islam Khan. Conspicuously, most of
the users targeted are Muslims. No action has been taken against any Hindutva organization. The police have
brandedsocialmedia posts onTripuraas fakenews intended to causeharmto thereputation ofTripuraPolice
andthe GovernmentofTripura. This targeting ofsocial media accounts unpalatable forthestate police reveals
a colonial mindset aimed at silencing any voice deemed critical. Meanwhile, the neighbouring state of Assam,
also ruled by a BJP-led government, remains on high alert, particularly the Barak Valley, leading to tense
polarisation on communal lines in the North-Eastern states, a phenomenon on the rise over the recent past.
The events unfolding in Tripura must be seen as a part of the larger trend of increasing erosion of democratic
rights across the country. While attacks on oppressed castes, classes and communities are on the rise, the
frequency with which state power is nakedly used to protect perpetrators and diffuse attention away from
them through concocted conspiracies is being honed with alacrity. The claim of conspiracy in Tripura while
incredulous is merely an addition to a roster of ‘conspiracies’. This includes the purported conspiracy of those
daring to show solidarity with the family of the young Dalit woman raped and murdered in Hathras, the so-
called effortto embarrassthegovernment throughthe protestsagainst the CAA, NRC and NPRwhich wasthen
followed by a brutal anti-Muslim pogrom in North-East Delhi and the outlandish PM assassination plot
concocted to target activists in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case while shielding Hindutva leaders
who perpetrated violence. In each of these cases the government and the police have connived with the
perpetratorsandfoistedconspiracycasesona rangeofpersonsinorderto drawattention awayfrom pressing
issues, be it gender and caste atrocities, communally divisive legislations and uniting against Brahmanical
Hindutva fascism. More recently, the invocation of UAPA against 16 people in Assam for social media posts on
the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and then on Kashmiri students for celebrating Pakistan’s victory
in a cricket match show how the definition of ‘unlawful’ has expanded to include any view unpalatable for
Hindutva. The intention is to stamp out, imprison and finally silence diverging views through the draconian
UAPA where the endless years of incarceration is in itself punishment.
While these ‘conspiracies’ aidedby the UAPA serveto protect the agentsof the State and incarcerate its critics,
they also serve a greater purpose. They implant in the public consciousness a sense of being besieged by
enemies from within. Oppressed castes, classes and communities, dissenters, and anyone opposed to the
status quo preserved and protected by the state are deemed anti-national. Similar to the role of the Reichstag
Fire in establishing the Nazi state in Germany, these conspiracies concocted by the Indian state pave the way
for the full-fledged establishment of Brahmanical Hindutva fascism. That those incarcerated in these
conspiracies spent their lives defending the rights of workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, Adivasis,
Dalits, Muslims and women fits perfectly in the scheme to strip these sections of the exploited and oppressed
peopleoftheir voice andrights. The communal violence in Tripura, the notices to the fourlawyersand charges
against the 102 social media users are part of the assault on our democratic rights. We must challenge this
onslaught unitedly. The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) calls on all democratic and progressive
sections of society to come together, demand the immediate withdrawal of these concocted cases against the
lawyers and social media users and ensure the perpetrators of violence in Tripura are prosecuted.
Campaign Against State Repression
(Organising Team: AISA, AISF, APCR, BCM, Bhim Army, Bigul Mazdoor Dasta, BSCEM, CEM, CRPP, CTF, Disha,
DISSC, DSU, DTF, IAPL, IMK, Karnataka Janashakti, KYS, Lokpaksh, LSI, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan,
Mazdoor Patrika, Mehnatkash Mahila Sangathan, Morcha Patrika, NAPM, NBS, NCHRO, Nowruz, NTUI,
People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Satyashodak Sangh, SFI, United Against Hate, WSS)