Delhi Court acquits three in Delhi Police MCOCA case

New Delhi: A court here acquitted three individuals charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for allegedly running an organised crime syndicate, stating that the Delhi Police’s case was based on a “wrong assumption”. The court determined that the prosecution’s case, built on the confessional statements of the accused, lacked substantial evidence to support the charges.

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala, who presided over the case against Satender alias Baba, Ajeet, and Rahul, remarked that the Delhi Police’s claim that these individuals were part of an organised crime syndicate, engaging in violent activities like robbery, dacoity, and illegal arms possession, did not meet the necessary legal requirements for invoking MCOCA.

The court noted that the prosecution failed to demonstrate any immediate cause of action indicating continued unlawful activity by the accused. Instead, the case against them was based solely on prior charge sheets, which the prosecution interpreted as instances of continued unlawful activity.

In its order passed earlier this month, it said the prosecution’s stand did not meet the legal requirements for invoking MCOCA and the Delhi Police’s case was “founded on a wrong assumption”. “Even otherwise, as per evidence on the record, except for the evidence in the form of confessional statements of the accused persons, there is no incriminating evidence for their involvement in the unlawful activity,” the court said.

It noted that at the time of recording their confessional statements, the magistrate concerned had asked each accused whether they made the statements, to which they replied in the negative and said that they were illiterate and police had obtained their signature on some unknown documents.

It said the trio was produced before the magistrate on the same day when they made the statements. “It is difficult to presume that a person having volunteered to make a confessional statement about crimes committed by him would deny having made such statement with the passage of some minutes or hours,” the court said.

The court concluded that as the confessional statements did not appear voluntarily, they were not “credible pieces of evidence”. “They (confessional statements) cannot be relied upon to say that accused persons were members of a crime syndicate and were involved in organised crime,” it said.

“I find that accused persons are entitled to acquittal in this case and hence, they are acquitted of the charges levelled,” the judge said.