Lok Sabha Passes NIA Bill, After Huge Debate Between Amit Shah And Opposition
Mumbai: After an intense debate between Home Minister Amit Shah and opposition, Lok Sabha passed the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on Monday.
The bill makes amendments to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, 2008, which provides a national level agency for investigation and prosecution of listed crimes in scheduled crimes. In addition, the Act allows the creation of special courts for the hearing of scheduled crimes.
In the bill, NIA has been allowed to investigate the following crimes except for crimes against human trafficking, counterfeit currency or bank notes, construction or sale of prohibited weapons, cyber terrorism and explosive substances Act, 1908.
Refuting the claims of the opposition on “misuse” of NIA legislation, Amit Shah said on Monday that the Modi government will never misuse it on the basis of religion, but will ensure that terrorism ends in spite of the religion of the accused.
Shah also targeted the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for a repeal of anti-terrorism Act POTA and said that it was not due to his alleged misuse But “to save your vote bank” was done.
While Home Minister G. Kishan Reddy sought the support of all the parties for the passage of National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Manish Tewari of Congress accused the government of trying to convert India into a “police state”.
Reddy told the House that the new law would allow NIA to investigate cases of terrorism targeting Indians and Indian property abroad and also to give the agency the right to investigate arms and human trafficking in addition to armed terrorism.
He said that terrorist attacks were seen after the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which resulted in the formation of NIA for the same UPA Government after the Mumbai attacks.
Shah sought all-party support for the passage of the bill, saying that on the issue of strengthening the agency, a division in the House would send a wrong message and will increase the morale of the terrorists.
Meanwhile, some MPs said that many times anti-terrorism laws are misused to target members of a particular community. Shah said, “Let me make it clear that the Modi government has no such intention, its only goal is to eliminate terrorism, but taking action, we will not see the religion of the accused.”
Tiwari opposed the bill and said that investigating agencies are misused for “political vendetta” and the “induced media leak” has changed the maximum limit of “conviction until proved innocent” on their heads.
He also claimed that the constitutional validity of the NIA Act, which led to the formation of the investigation agency, is still not settled because the arguments challenging its legitimacy are pending in various courts.
(With PTI Inputs)
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