SC slams Chhattisgarh Police for invoking UAPA to defeat protection order
text_fields
New Delhi: The Supreme Court reprimanded the Chhattisgarh Police on Friday for using the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against a murder suspect just days after he was given interim protection from arrest, according to Live Law.
“The officer is aware that this court has protected him from arrest and then hurriedly the sections of UAPA are applied,” said a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan. “We see the game in this. This is the grossest impropriety committed by him. We would not hesitate to initiate criminal contempt against him.”
According to PTI, Manish Rathore, a news agency content writer, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a Chhattisgarh High Court order that denied him anticipatory bail in a murder case, Scroll.in reported.
The bench granted him bail and ordered the state authorities to appear before the relevant sessions court within a week.
Rathore was granted interim protection from arrest on January 2 by the Supreme Court, and shortly after that, the Chhattisgarh Police asked a sessions judge to add charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act charges in another first information report against Rathore, in which he had already been granted bail, reported Bar and Bench.
The bench stated on Friday that this was done in an effort to "defeat the January 2 order." The Supreme Court was informed by the police that there was proof linking Rathore to Maoist activity. In response, the bench emphasised that the state administration had to ask the court for approval before taking action.
