“Our officials have started booking the accused under PASA since August 2008. As no enforcement agency in Rajasthan had any experience of dealing in PASA, we had sought a ‘visiting faculty’ from Gujarat police,” Director of the Rajasthan Police Academy (RPA) in Jaipur, IGP Bhupendra Singh told Newsline on Thursday.

The request was followed by an inspector with the Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) of Ahmedabad police, S G Yadav, being sent to Rajasthan.

Yadav has till now addressed two seminars at RPA campus held respectively on August 26 last year and January 15 this year. Several of the Rajasthan police top brass attended the seminars. “I spoke on the mandatory legal provisions and the steps needed for booking an accused under PASA,” Yadav said.

In absence of a special anti-social activities act, the Rajasathan police hitherto invoked state acts like the Gunda Act (GA) and the Habitual Offenders Act (HOA). In case of an extremely serious issue, the provisions of the central National Securities Act (NSA) were invoked.

When asked about the importance of having PASA just before the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Additional Director General (crime, Rajasthan police, Kanhaiya Lal, said, “PASA will have no direct bearing on our security arrangements for elections. It would, however, definitely help us indirectly ensure that the elections pass off peacefully and according to the rules of the Election Commission.”

Lal added: “Rajasthan had had several peaceful and fair elections earlier without using PASA.”

In Gujarat, PASA is a state act since 1985. The state also has a three-member PASA Advisory Board (PAB). Those who can be detained under PASA in Gujarat are notorious bootleggers, dangerous criminals, cruel persons, gamblers, land grabbers, people involved in piracy and sex workers.