Sedition cases saw a dip across India last year, declining from 76 FIRs in 2021 to 20 cases in 2022, according to the National Crime Records Bureau’s latest annual report released on Sunday. With five FIRs, West Bengal saw the highest number of these cases, followed by three each in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Uttar Pradesh.
A total of 1,005 UAPA cases were lodged across the country last year, with Jammu and Kashmir registering over a third of the total cases with 371 FIRs.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh, which registered 29 of the total 76 sedition cases filed under IPC section 124A last year, did not lodge a single such case last year, according to the Crime in India report.
Around 241 sedition cases and 5,016 UAPA cases are pending investigation across the country, according to the report. The ministry of home affairs had last year told Parliament citing NCRB data that as many as 3,998 UAPA cases were pending investigation across all states and Union Territories at the end of 2021. In 2019, this figure stood at 3,993 and in 2020, it was pegged at 4,101.
About 52 UAPA cases and four sedition cases came to an end last year with the police final report terming the allegations as false, according to the report.
Newslaundry had earlier explained why India still has a sedition law. Here is a graphic summing up what the law signifies.
As many as 94.2 percent of cases pertaining to offences against the state are still pending in courts, according to the report. The pendency percentage is slightly higher for FIRs linked to the Official Secrets Act, suggests the NCRB report.
There were 38 arrests over sedition cases while 2,636 individuals were arrested over UAPA charges, according to the report.
The NCRB report also points out that there were 9,375 arrests last year over alleged offences against the state, with more than a third of these arrests – 3,647 – seen in Uttar Pradesh alone.
Meanwhile, there has been a 4 percent surge in cases of crimes against women, according to the report. There were 4,45,256 cases reported under crimes against women, up from 4,28,278 in 2021. The 2021 NCRB report had shown a rise of 15.3 percent under this category as compared to 2020.
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