New Delhi: A report by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has criticised Uttar Pradesh’s recently enacted Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill (UPCOCB). The report, an analysis of the fine print of the law, calls the law “a mockery of procedure”. It finds that the law “enhances” the power of the police to “force the accused to incriminate themselves”. The law requires the accused to answer all questions put to her while in police custody and these answers can then be used in court as admissible evidence. “This provision enables self-incrimination by the accused under duress,” the report states.The PUDR report also finds that the UPCOCB could be used to hold people in preventive detention “through the backdoor”. The Act doubles the period an accused can be held in judicial remand for from 90 days to 180 days. Further, the Act places restrictions on granting of bail such that the accused cannot be granted bail before filing of the chargesheet. While an accused may be granted bail after filing of the chargesheet, the Act requires the judge to be ‘satisfied’ that the accused is innocent. Explaining the oddity of this clause, the PUDR report said, “How can the judge decide whether the accused is innocent before completing the trial? And if the judge is so satisfied, the accused needs to be set free and not just made eligible for bail!”The report also took exception to the increased police encounters in the state that have resulted in the deaths of 61 persons since the Bhartiya Janata Party came to power in UP in March 2017. It said, “A policy by a government to ask the police to shoot to kill is not permitted in law.”Pointing out that people from economically and socially disadvantages communities – Dalits, backward castes, and Muslims – form a majority of those killed in these encounters, the report expressed fear that the UPCOCB could also become a tool to ‘attack those in opposition as well as those from economically and socially weaker communities.”“UPCOCA, thus, becomes a means to perpetuate an unequal, oppressive and exploitative order where the marginalized have little hope of escape from the operations of power. This Act brings into our midst a set of draconian procedures, punishments and definitions that are so all encompassing that it threatens to destroy the delicate systems of checks and balances that have evolved with our democratic system to ensure a modicum of justice,” the report concluded.