The Kerala government is all set to bring in a new law similar to Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to tackle organised criminal activities in the state, reports said. The law will give special powers to police in their probe into crimes like smuggling, drug trafficking and extortion.
According to reports, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has given approval for framing the new law. The chief minister’s green signal came after top officers of the police and intelligence departments convinced him about the need to have a strong law to check the increasing number of organised crimes in the state.
Once the law is passed, Kerala will become the third state after Maharashtra and Delhi to have such a stringent law against crime syndicates.
Quoting officials in the state home department, a national daily on Thursday reported that a draft of the new legislation has already been prepared and the Law Department is in the process of fine-tuning it.
The move comes amid the ongoing probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Customs into the sensational gold smuggling case that has stirred up a political storm in the state. Both the Congress and the BJP have been demanding chief minister’s resignation after his formal principal secretary was questioned by the investigation agencies over his alleged links with the accused.
MCOCA
Maharashtra passed MCOCA in 1999 to combat organised crime and terrorism in the state. In 2002, the Union Home Ministry extended the applicability of the law to the National Capital territory of Delhi.
As per MCOCA, an organised crime means “any continuing unlawful activity by an individual, singly or jointly, either as a member of an organised crime syndicate or on behalf of such syndicate, by use of violence or threat of violence or intimidation or coercion, or other unlawful means, with the objective of gaining pecuniary benefits, or gaining undue economic or other advantage for himself or any person or promoting insurgency.”
It defines "organised crime syndicate" as a "group of two or more persons who, acting either singly or collectively, as a syndicate of gang indulge in activities of organised crime".
