Telangana govt to drop UAPA case against human rights activist, five others

Police said a petition will be filed in a local court in Mulugu district, seeking to withdraw the names of Haragopal and five others.

The Telangana government has decided to withdraw a case filed under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against human rights activist G Haragopal and five others, who were named among 152 people, in connection with the case involving some cadre of the banned CPI (Maoist) party.

Following an uproar over UAPA provisions slapped against Haragopal and some others in August 2022, the state government recently directed the police to initiate the process for dropping their names from the case.

To this, Haragopal said the entire case should be withdrawn by dropping the charges against all persons as there are defects. He also urged parties and public representatives to come out with a promise to repeal the stringent legislation.

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Police said a petition will be filed in a local court in Mulugu district, seeking to withdraw the names of former professor of the University of Hyderabad Haragopal and five others.

The six were among 152 people -- some Maoist cadres, sympathisers and other persons -- against whom an FIR was registered in Tadvai police station under sections of UAPA in August last year.

"In the investigation conducted so far, it has been revealed that adequate evidence against Haragopal, Padmaja Shah, V Raghunath, Gaddam Laxman, Gunti Ravinder, and Suresh Kumar have not been found regarding involvement in this case and a memo is being filed in court with request for deletion of their names from the case," Mulugu Superintendent of Police Gaush Alam said.

A petition is being filed in the court in this regard, the SP told PTI on Tuesday.

"Against whom no evidence is found their names will be deleted. It is matter of evidence," the senior police official said.

He further said apart from the six (Haragopal and five others against whom evidence was not found), they have identified some more people against whom no evidence was found in the case.

When asked about two deceased persons including a former Bombay High Court judge, who were listed as accused in the FIR, the senior police official said: "...we came to know about it and those names will also be deleted".

He said the case was registered against those whose names were mentioned in the Maoist literature seized then.

Further investigation will be continued in this case, the official said adding during investigation if it is found that people (who were named in the FIR) are not involved and no evidence is found then accordingly their names will be withdrawn from the case.

On some civil rights activists saying the UAPA case cannot be withdrawn easily with the filing of the discharge memo in the court and that a Government Order (GO) must be issued, the official said, "It does not require any GO. During investigation, if we get to know that these persons (accused) are not involved, we will be (approaching the court for) deleting names of those accused from the case.

With regard to the case, police said on August 19, 2022, based on reliable information that there was an illegal assembly of the CPI (Maoist) party members of Telangana State led by Bade Chokka Rao alias Damodar and other Maoist and militia members in a forest area of Tadvai mandal, a combing operation was launched by Mulugu Police.

During the combing operation, the police team observed armed men of the banned CPI (Maoist) party and asked them to surrender. However, they (Maoists) ran away from there vacating their tent and escaped into the dense forest, police said.

Afterwards, the police party recovered some kit bags, some CPI (Maoist) literature and other documentary evidence among other articles from the tent which were seized.

An UAPA case under relevant IPC sections and provisions of the UAPA, and under the Arms Act was registered in Tadvai police station against 152 accused which included main Maoist leaders, their sympathisers, and other persons whose names were mentioned in the Maoist literature seized from the scene of crime, police said.

Referring on the move to drop the UAPA case against him, Haragopal has demanded that the case itself should be withdrawn.

"All (against whom case has been filed) are in the same case. The case is being removed against one person means the government has realised that either the case is wrong or some defect has happened. It applies to all. So, we demand that the case as a whole should be lifted," he said.

He also demanded that parties and public representatives should promise that they will make efforts to abrogate UAPA.

Haragopal said a democratic and humane environment should be established in Telangana.

Observing that Telangana was born out of an agitation, he alleged that the BRS government behaved the same way like its predecessors in undivided Andhra Pradesh with regard to civil and democratic rights.

He also alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre has been misusing UAPA.

The Telangana government should promise that it will not invoke the UAPA in the state and that it will withdraw the cases filed earlier under the law, Haragopal further said.