Scribe moves Supreme Court, seeks quashing of UAPA charges by Tripura police

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 9

Booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, by the Tripura Police, journalist Shyam M Singh and several others have moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against them for their alleged provocative posts regarding recent communal clashes in the state.

The charges under stringent provisions of the UAPA have been slapped against him for tweeting “Tripura is burning”. The Editors Guild of India had condemned the Tripura Police’s action, terming it an attempt to use stringent laws to suppress reporting on communal violence.

Four Supreme Court advocates — Ehtesham Hashmi, Amit Srivastava, Ansar Indori and Mukesh Kumar — who had conducted a fact-finding inquiry into the communal violence in Tripura — have also been sent UAPA notices for their alleged provocative social media posts.

The Tripura Police have also initiated action against 102 social media accounts under the UAPA, criminal conspiracy, forgery and other charges and asked Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to freeze these accounts and furnish details about the account holders.