Beyond due process

Invoking UAPA against a news outfit is overreaction

The invocation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against NewsClick executives and the manner in which the day-long raids were conducted epitomise all the public misgivings about the recently passed Digital Personal Data Protection Act and the planned reforms of the criminal procedure laws, currently under parliamentary committee scrutiny. By seizing office documents, laptops, and mobile phones of journalists associated with the platform and detaining the founder and editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, and the HR head, Amit Chakraborty, without presenting either with a copy of the First Information Report (FIR), the law enforcement apparatus has underlined the state’s approach to