MUMBAI: Can the stringent anti-gangster law MCOCA be invoked only in criminal cases which reveal some pecuniary or monetary benefits to the organized crime syndicate? A full bench of the Bombay High Court has been constituted to decide the issue.
“The scope of the law cannot be restricted to mean that the offence is made out only if there is any economic advantage to the accused,” said additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai.
“There are other advantages that the syndicate may gain.”
“Acts such as murder of police informers, forcing witnesses to turn hostile, gang wars are not acts which directly cause financial gains, but are used to consolidate the power of the organized crime syndicate,” said senior advocate Amit Desai.
Under the law, an accused can be charged under MCOCA if he is shown to be part of an organized crime syndicate against whom there is more than one charge sheet in the past 10 years. The law further says that the offences should reveal continuous unlawful activity “with the objective of gaining pecuniary benefits or gaining undue economic advantage or other advantage”.
The issue before the full bench is whether the term “other advantage” can only mean economic advantage. The cases before the court include the killing of advocate Shahid Azmi. A special court had dropped the provisions of MCOCA saying there was no “pecuniary benefit” revealed in the first information reports. Read More
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