Court finds MCOCA FIR on "wrong foundation", police urges High Court to set aside finding

New Delhi [India], March 1 : The Delhi Police recently urged the Delhi High Court to set aside the trial court order, reusing the permission to interrogate the accused person.
The judge not only declined permission to interrogate a person in connection with a case under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) but also said that the FIR was based on the "wrong foundation".
This FIR has been registered against Hasim Baba alias Asim and his organised crime syndicate, in connection with the case.
Delhi Police wanted to interrogate Asrar in an MCOCA case FIR against Hashim Baba.
Delhi police have urged for setting aside the order of the trial court declining permission to interrogate the accused persons. He has already been enlarged on bail.
Justice Sanjeev Narula, on February 28, granted time to counsel for respondent Asrar alias Israr to file a reply.
Earlier, a notice was issued on February 24. Now, the matter has been listed for March 5.
The bench is dealing with an appeal moved against the order of January 18, 2025, passed by the Karkardooma Court dismissing the application of the Delhi Police seeking permission to interrogate and arrest the respondent Asrar, who is named as an accused in an FIR registered under Section 3 of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 at Police station (PS) Gokul Puri.
The said application was filed when the respondent was in judicial custody in relation to arrest.
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Akhand Pratap Singh for Delhi police before the High Court that as per the information of the prosecution, subsequent to the said noted order, the Respondent has been released on bail.
Nonetheless, since there is a judicial finding declining the Appellant's request to arrest and interrogate the Respondent, this finding needs to be set aside for the prosecution to proceed further, SPP submitted before the High Court.
While rejecting the application of the Delhi Police on January 18, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala said, "Therefore, I find that this FIR is based on wrong foundation and wrong notion of law. For this reason, allowing the arrest of any person in this FIR shall not be appropriate because when the foundation of this case is based on the wrong notion and application of the law, then certainly taking away the liberty of anyone in such a case cannot be legal."
"In view of my foregoing discussions, observations and findings, the application of IO thereby seeking interrogation and arrest of accused Asrar alias Israr alias Popat, in this FIR, is rejected," ASJ Pramachala ordered on January 18, 2025.
The trial court had asked about the illegal activities that triggered the invocation of MCOCA.
The trial court had said that if the activity reported in FIR No.232/2024 was actually being treated as the latest instance of continuing unlawful activity on the part of a crime syndicate, so as to invoke MCOCA, then the provisions of MCOCA were to be added in FIR No 232/2024, rather than registering this FIR separately under Section 3 MCOCA only.
"However, as already mentioned herein-above this FIR even does not refer to the activity reported in FIR No 232/2024 as taken to be the latest continued unlawful activity of the crime syndicate," the ASJ Pramachala held.
He said the contents of this FIR reflect that probably a wrong notion of the definition of Section 2 (d), 2(e) and 2 (1) MCOCA was nurtured. That is the reason that rather than pointing out details of a third instance of alleged organised crime, a reference to FIR 232/24 was simply given along with the description of other past cases.