NEW DELHI: As the “anti-national” protests play out Delhi’s universities, documents reveal an abysmal conviction count in cases related to sedition. Only 16 were convicted out of 1,179 individuals who were arrested in 2015 for the alleged ‘offences against the State’.
Of late, several such incidents have been reported that entail long and harsh punishments but most of them fall flat in courts during trial.
Delhi Police used the sedition law against JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar on February 9 last year and it was alleged that students had raised anti-India slogans to mark the anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, convicted for the 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament.
‘Offences against the state’, which was listed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for the first time last year, include waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the government (Section 121 of IPC), conspiracy to commit offences punishable by Section 121 (Section 121A) and collecting arms with intention of waging war against the government (Section 122), among others.
Given long investigations, low chargesheet rate, lengthy trials and much lower conviction rate, the process of pendency itself is used as a weapon of suppression by the state to harass and punish people accused of such offences.
According to NCRB, 571 cases of ‘offence against the state’ were registered all over the country in 2015, with Uttar Pradesh topping the list with 60 cases, followed by Telangana (54), Karnataka (49) and Kerala (45).
The case pendency percentage of sedition and others is as high as 82.8 per cent as investigators fail to bring concrete evidences.