Bill to control organised crimes in next session: State to HC

The state government informed the Madras High Court that a Bill relating to Tamil Nadu Control of Organised Crime Act to control organised crimes in the state would be passed in the next Assembly session.

A division bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran (since retd) and Justice P Velmurugan, on recording the submission, said, “This Court feels happy and appreciates the state government for having made ready the draft bill to be presented before the Assembly. If such Act is passed, the police will be able to deal with the criminals effectively.”

The response was to a query raised by the bench while dealing with a habeas corpus plea challenging the detention of a known criminal in a case of organised crime as to why not the state government come out with a new Act, like “Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act, 1999” (MCOCA) or similar Act as passed by Karnataka viz., “The Karnataka Control of Organized Crimes Act, 2000, (KCOCA),” which would enable the police to deal with and control organized criminals/paid killers effectively.

The court while dealing with the HCP along with this had raised 24 other queries relating to the number of anti-social gangs/paid killers (Mercenaries) that are active in Chennai as well as throughout Tamil Nadu and in India and the number of murders committed by the anti-social gangs/paid killers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and throughout India for the past 10 years.

The court then had also sought the state to respond on forming a special wing in police headed by an officer in the rank of DGP to contain organized criminals/paid killers/history sheeters/ gangsters and recruit officials and give them special training to deal with them and to investigate those cases effectively.