Govt to withdraw UAPA charges against ‘Maoist leader’ Rupesh

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has decided to withdraw its demand for slapping charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on alleged Maoist leader Rupesh. The government is learned to have submitted its petition before the Supreme Court in this regard.
The Supreme Court had issued a notice to Rupesh in August 2022 on the petition filed by the state government which sought the revoking of the UAPA charges on Rupesh, which was quashed by the Kerala High Court though its verdict.
The Supreme Court is set to take up the case again on September 19 and the new decision from the state government has come following the intervention of the CPM central leadership, it is learnt.
When the matter comes before the Supreme Court, the standing counsel of the state government will inform the court that the state government is not going ahead with the plea for slapping the UAPA charges against Rupesh.
In the cases registered at Kuttiyadi and Valayam police stations in Kozhikode, the police had filed the report that Rupesh had circulated the Maoist leaflets. However, when the case came before the high court, it quashed the government decision to slap the UAPA charges on him.
Rights activists had accused the CPM of double standards in upholding democratic rights of people, especially with regard to the implementation of UAPA.
The activists had highlighted the instance of the CPM-led LDF government moving the Supreme Court against the high court quashing the UAPA case filed against Rupesh while speaking out against the UAPA in other states.
CDRO (Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation), a rights group, had in August appealed to “democracy-loving people to strengthen the campaign demanding the release of Rupesh and to all leftist and democratic rights activists to take note of this double-standard of the CPM”.
The group had also cited the Pantheerankavu case in which two left-leaning students, Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal, were charged under UAPA.