together, and also for ensuring that dissent in all forms is crushed."On 25 July 2021, Justice Aftab Alam, former Supreme Court judge spoke on a webinar titled "Discussion On Democracy, Dissent and Draconian Law – Should UAPA & Sedition Have A Place In Our Statute Books?". In the discussion, he called UAPA a "draconian law" and said that it was the UAPA that caused the death of Father Stan Swamy without a trial. Stan Swamy was an activist that was charged with UAPA for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and links to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and later died in prison due to COVID-19. Alam further stated that UAPA has a realistic conviction rate of 2%. He further stated that this law can lead to situations where case may fail but the accused would have been incarcerated for 8 to 12 years. He said in such cases, the case may have no legs to stand on but the accused has suffered and he concluded that in such cases the process becomes the punishment. While the misuse of the law has been constantly debated, Police was also criticized for not invoking UAPA in some cases like the Haridwar hate speech case. On 20 January 2022, BBC called the UAPA a draconian anti-terror law and reported that many protestors and journalists were arrested detained or charged with UAPA. UAPA had made it harder for the accused to get bail. PM Narendra Modi led BJP Union Government has been accused of misusing UAPA to stifle dissent and target minorities in India. Notable arrests made under the Act Between 2014 and 2020, 10,552 people were arrested under UAPA. See also List of organisations banned by the Government of India Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 References Bibliography The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967— Updated text of the Act at India Code Further reading Sr Adv Mihir Desai: The Problem of Preventive Detention in India Acts of the Parliament of India 1967 Crime in India Separatism in India Terrorism laws in India