Probe under gangster law to be completed in 6 months
NEW DELHI: Bringing its prophesied ‘zero tolerance’ policy for organized crimes, the UP government on Friday placed before the Supreme Court a fresh guideline for strict implementation of its Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, and said no member of a gang would be given government job, contract or lease.
Placing the guidelines before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N K Singh, additional solicitor general K M Nataraj said the police are mandated to complete investigations into the cases lodged under the 40-year-old Act in six months and that the trial in such cases against persons would get precedent over other cases pending against him.
The guidelines notified on December 2, 2024, said, “It should be ensured that no member of a gang is given benefit of government services, business, lease deeds and government schemes in any situation.”
It said the police should conduct a thorough investigation regarding the movable and immovable assets of the people booked under the gangster law, inquire into the source of funds for the acquisition of these assets and ascertain physical possession of the lands from revenue records.
“A report along with details of the entire property and documentary evidence for confiscation (of the assets) shall mandatorily be submitted before the police commissioner/district magistrate and copy of the order of confiscation of the property of the gang passed by the commissioner or district magistrate be also included in the investigations,” it said.
“Only attachment (of a gangster’s assets) is not sufficient under the 1986 Act but the confiscation of the attached property in favour of the state from the anti-gangster special court is necessary. Therefore, the above should be reviewed regularly and intensively at the level of district and division,” the guidelines said.
The provisions of the 1986 Act are to be applied “only when a gangster commits the crime by violence, threat or show of violence or intimidation or coercion etc, alone or in group, with the object of disturbing public order or for gaining any undue temporal, pecuniary, material or other advantage for himself or any other person”.
The guidelines specified that if a history sheeter gets charged under gangster law, then the latter offence would get precedent over other crimes in the trial before the special court and trials in other cases would be kept in abeyance till the completion of trial proceedings under the 1986 law.
