New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha today unanimously passed the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2019, after Amit Shah was able to convince the house that the government will not misuse the agency.
The aim of the Bill is to enhance the jurisdiction of NIA to investigate offences committed in foreign lands against Indians and Indian assets abroad.
The NIA (Amendments) Bill gives power to NIA to prosecute terrorists indulged in harming Indians abroad. Also the new law seeks to investigate offences related to human trafficking, counterfeit currency, manufacture or sale of prohibited arms, cyber-terrorism and offences under Explosive Substances Act.
The Bill also provides to set up special courts for scheduled crimes such as human trafficking and cyber terrorism.
Amit Shah while assuring that the government will not misuse the law asked the house to pass the bill unanimously so that a strong message is send out to the world saying that India is united against terrorism.
He said that NIA must have a strong image in front of the world and the Parliament is committed in building that image. The Home Minister also said that the efficiency of NIA should not be degraded on political considerations.
The Minister outlined the successes of the investigation agency till June, 2019. He said that 272 cases are registered in which 199 cases are chargesheeted while prosecution is over in 51 cases and sentence pronounced in 46 cases. He said that this is one of the best performances by global standards.
When the opposition raised the case of Samjhauta blast case, in which the accused where let off, the minister said that the case was politically motivated and the prosecution failed to find any evidence against the accused.
He asked if the families of those falsely accused in Samjhauta blast did not have any human rights.
As usual, the left parties were opposed and asked the Bill to be send to the Select Committee. When Amit Shah replied that they should have moved a motion in this regard, the left parties staged a walk out.
The Bill will now empower NIA further to tackle the menace of terrorism inside and outside of India.
