Setting aside the order of a lower court, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday held that the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act can be applied concurrently in terror cases.
“The trial court’s order in which the accused had been discharged [under MCOCA] has been set aside.
“The High Court held that the accused can be booked under the MCOCA as well as the UAPA,” special public prosecutor Raja Thakare told
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A Division Bench of Justices P.V. Hardas and Shalini Pansalkar-Joshi pronounced the order on an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government challenging the August 2014 order of the Special MCOCA court, which revoked charges under the MCOCA against Firoz alias Hamaja Abdul Hamid Sayyed, an accused in the 2012 serial bomb explosions in Pune. The case was then moved to a regular court trying Firoz under the UAPA and Indian Penal Code charges.
In January 2014, Firoz moved the Special MCOCA court challenging the charges against him under the MCOCA on the ground that both Acts could not be invoked concurrently.
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Firoz was arrested along with four others by the Delhi police special cell on December 12, 2012 for allegedly conspiring and planting bombs at two of the six targeted locations on Junglee Maharaj Road in Pune.
Four low-intensity blasts rocked the busy road on August 1, 2012, injuring one person.
The explosions were set off with pencil cell detonators placed in a plastic bag, a dustbin and on cycles at two locations.