Thane court acquits two charged under MCOCA for robbery

A Thane court has acquitted two men accused of robbery under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), noting that the prosecution failed to provide “substantial or corroborative evidence” linking them to the crime.

The prosecution could not show that the alleged crime was committed for gaining pecuniary benefits by the accused as a member of an organised crime syndicate, Special MCOCA Court Judge VG Mohite observed in the judgment on Friday.

The case pertained to an incident on September 11, 2022, in the Kalyan area of Thane district, where a woman’s gold chain was allegedly snatched.

While the police invoked MCOCA based on the criminal antecedents of the accused, Jaykumar Komal Rathod (38) and Gazi Dara Irani alias Sayyad (33), the court found the evidence regarding the specific incident severely lacking.

“The prosecution has failed to establish the identity of the accused persons beyond a reasonable doubt. The Test Identification Parade was not conducted in accordance with the prescribed manual, making the identification in court vulnerable,” the court noted.

“The recovery of the alleged stolen property (gold chain) from the accused has not been proved by the prosecution through independent and reliable panch witnesses. The witnesses turned hostile, and their testimony does not inspire confidence,” it said.

Since the primary offence of robbery under Section 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code is not proved, the charges under the MCOC Act cannot be sustained. “The mere existence of prior charge-sheets is not sufficient to convict an accused for organised crime in the absence of proof of the current preceding offence,” the court observed.

The judge ordered the immediate release of the accused if not required in any other case.