A key member of the Ashwin Naik gang who was held in a recent extortion and kidnapping case of a city builder, is a juvenile. While eight gang members have been charged under the Maharastra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999, the law brought out to combat organised crime and terrorism, the 17-year-old is out on bail. Special public prosecutor Dilip Shah said, “The juvenile was arrested on Dec. 23 by Dadar police, remanded before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and released on bail the very next day.”
He added, “While MCOCA charges were levied on the others on December 28, the juvenile was already out on bail as the court was not made aware of the additional charges. The police custody of all the other accused ends of Jan. 2, and the JJB will have to summon the juvenile as MCOCA has been invoked .”