The Delhi Police have set up a dedicated cell to intensify its actions against organised crime and syndicates run by gangsters. The team, set up within the Crime Branch, will investigate the finances of organised crime in Delhi NCR. They will not only handle cases registered by the Crime Branch, but will also extend their expertise to district police units dealing with such cases.
The new team is named ‘MCOCA cell’ after the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 – a stringent law enacted in 1999 to give special powers to the police to combat organised crime and terrorism.
The Act brought special surveillance powers to the police, enabling them to gather stricter evidence to be able to frame watertight cases that result in convictions with harsher penalties and punishments, even including the death penalty.
The MCOCA was established in Maharashtra and later extended to Delhi NCR in 2002.
The MCOCA cell under the Crime Branch will be headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police-level officer. There will be four Assistant Commissioners of Police as investigating officers and 75 other members in the team. There also will be two legal officers in the cell, a senior police officer told News18.
“The cell will register and investigate cases against identified organised crime syndicates of gangsters. Important pending cases against organised crime that are registered with district police units will also be transferred to the MCOCA cell for in-depth investigations,” the officer added.
Devesh Chandra Srivastava, Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, confirmed the development and said this will help in bringing organised crime under control. “We aim to break the backbone of syndicates run by gangsters. The new setup aims for that, and we will see results soon,” the Special Commissioner said.
The document says that the MCOCA cell shall not be tasked with any operations other than investigation. It further reads, “The role of MCOCA cell shall be strictly limited to the investigation of MCOCA cases…the MCOCA cell shall share details of accused/gang members wanted in MCOCA cases investigated by it to all districts/special cell and crime branch every month.”
A senior officer who wished not to be named said this would mean that the Crime Branch will register cases under MCOCA but operations, raids, and crackdown related to that will be done by the Special Cell, Delhi Police’s anti-terror squad, or district police teams, as deemed fit by senior authorities.
