Mumbai, July 12 -- Senior advocate Mihir Desai on Friday questioned the motive of the state government after the legislative assembly passed the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill on Thursday, and said the main intent behind it was to crush dissent. "Laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) already have provisions to ban an organisation. So what was the need for a new law," Desai, who practises in the Bombay high court, asked. Organisations like the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had been banned under the UAPA in the past, he said. "But under the new law, if the government thinks you are an organisation, it can ban you." It would not matter in such cases if the organisation was registered or unregistered, he mentioned. Though the Bill was purportedly targeted against 'urban naxals', it did not define who an urban naxal was, leaving scope for anyone to be implicated, Desai said. It was important to hit the streets and protest against the law, he noted, referring to massive protests in 2020 over the three farm laws which were eventually repealed by the central government. "Such laws need to be protested against, so that they are taken back or at least, not misused," the senior advocate said. Desai was speaking at an event organised by the Innocence Network to mark the 19th anniversary of the 7/11 serial blasts in the city. Abdul Wahid Shaikh, founder of the Innocence Network, was the only person acquitted in the case. Among 12 other accused convicted in the case, five men were sentenced to death while seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment. All twelve accused subsequently challenged their conviction before the Bombay high court, which reserved its judgment in the case....