NDA to cite 'loopholes' in new terror laws during PM's meet

Calcutta News.Net
Monday 5th January, 2009 (IANS)

A day ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with chief ministers on internal security, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Monday night decided to point out the 'shortcomings' in the new terror laws during the meeting.

This was decided at a dinner meeting of the chief ministers of BJP ruled states and those of its partners in the NDA with senior BJP leader L.K. Advani.

The NDA leaders discussed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, passed last month by the parliament.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shanker Prasad told IANS that the NDA felt there were shortcomings in the new laws, which were not adequate to handle terror cases.

He said: 'The meeting laid emphasis about the provisions about the confession of a terrorist before his interrogators.'

The party had pointed out earlier 'that the nature of a terrorist crime is such that the investigator will never be able to prove what happened in the closed door meetings and terrorist training camps through eye-witnesses. Even intercepts will be normally post crime,' BJP general secretary Arun Jaitely told a section of the media late Monday.

Jaitely also said that the investigation process in the new laws was lengthy. He said it would take some 45 days for a decision to be taken if a case was worth investigating by the NIA.

The meeting was attended by all the nine chief ministers of the NDA except Naveen Patnaik of Orissa and Prakash Singh Badal of Punjab.

The BJP rules in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Gujarat, while Orissa, Punjab and Bihar are governed by partners Biju Janata Dal, Shiromani Akali Dal and Janata Dal (United) respectively.

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