MUMBAI: The city police have from Monday started a new unit called the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) branch to gather information on crimes related to organised gangs.
Police said the branch will gather information on whether the case fulfills the legal requirement as set out in the Act. MCOCA came into force on February 24, 1999, and was aimed at tackling organised crimes.
The crime is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by contract killings, extortion, smuggling in contrabands, illegal trade in narcotics, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money and money laundering, etc, says the statement of objects and reasons for invoking the Act.
One of the conditions is that the person should be engaged in “continuing unlawful activity” which is a cognizable offence punishable with imprisonment of three years of more, undertaken either singly or jointly, as a member of an organised crime syndicate or on behalf of such syndicate in respect of which more than one chargesheets have been filed before a competent court within the preceding period of 10 years, and that court has taken cognizance of such offence.
The police had also started invoking MCOCA against chain snatchers.
The MCOCA branch is headed by police inspector Manish Sridhankar, who was with the crime branch. The team will also have five to six policemen, including two sub inspectors and constables. The branch will be supervised by joint commissioner of police (crime) Milind Bharambe.
According to statistics, 27 offences of MCOCA were registered between 2019-2020 and 31 between 2020-2021. “Many times, when a member of an underworld gang is deported or a member of an organised crime is arrested, there is lack of information on whether the stringent Act can be invoked. A sanction from the commissioner of police is required and many a times sanctioning authority is dragged to courts for not following due legal process. The branch will also keep a tab on the activities of criminals who are released on bail in MCOCA case,” said a police officer.
