Tripura police books 4 SC lawyers under UAPA over fact-finding report

Agartala:  Tripura police have registered a case against four Supreme Court lawyers under the stringent UAPA and various sections of IPC for allegedly promoting communal disharmony with their social media posts about the recent violence targeting Muslims, a senior official said on Friday.
The lawyers have also been served notices asking them to appear before police by November 10 for questioning, Superintendent of Police of West Tripura district Manik Das said.
“A group of Supreme Court lawyers visited Tripura on Tuesday last and after their visit we noticed that several posts were made in social media expressing their discontent regarding the recent communal incidents. Police has registered a case and wants to know if the posts were made by them or were fake posts,” Das told PTI.
The case was registered at West Agartala police station on November 3 under various sections of IPC including 153 (a) and (b) related to promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race etc, 469 (forgery), 504 (intentional insult, provocation), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), besides section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
If convicted under the tough UAPA, an offender may face imprisonment up to seven years.
The lawyers belong to different organisations including Lawyers for Democracy, National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO) and the PUCL.