Fearing misuse, Punjab decides to go slow on anti-gangster act

The law, being mooted in the state for past over 12 years, ever since SAD-BJP government led by Parkash Singh Badal was in power in the Punjab, is being pushed by experts citing that “the-need-of-the-hour” is to have strict and special provisions while dealing with the cases of organised crime involving gangsters.

The state government has once again pushed to backburner the enactment of the anti-gangster law — this time named the ‘Punjab Anti-Gangster Act’ — fearing a possibility of its misuse for setting political scores.

The law, being mooted in the state for past over 12 years, ever since SAD-BJP government led by Parkash Singh Badal was in power in the Punjab, is being pushed by experts citing that “the-need-of-the-hour” is to have strict and special provisions while dealing with the cases of organised crime involving gangsters.

Chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann led-AAP government too felt the need for the law as it was backed by some senior police officers and the anti-gangster task force (AGTF), a special wing of Punjab Police which was formed to deal with gangsters after the gruesome killing of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, better known as Moose Wala.

AGTF chief Parmod Ban, during his interaction with Hindustan Times in June this year, had also disclosed how his team was working in tandem with the state government on the draft for Punjab Anti-Gangster Act, on the pattern of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The AGTF had also pushed for the need of having a Witness Protection Act in cases related to organised crime.

However, once again, the new government has started treading cautiously on the issue and a strong push has been made by some senior officers at the helm of affairs to re-think the new law.

“The proposal was mooted when the gangster menace was at its peak and the killing of Moose Wala made it worse for the police. However, the situation has eased up to great extent. Our AGTF is working very hard to nab the gangsters and most of them are behind bars now. We want to go slow on the formation of this law keeping in mind the possibilities of its misuse,” a top police functionary of Punjab Police disclosed Hindustan Times.

According to a senior government functionary, the government at the start wanted to immediately form the law.

“Few human rights activists and intellectuals from various fields, including from the field of literature and media, have also given negative feedback to the government against the act after which it was decided to hold the enactment of law for a while and re-think on it,” the government functionary said.

The previous two regimes had introduced it as Punjab Control of Organised Crime (PCOCA) Act, and cited that using present laws, the gangsters manage to get relief in cases of serious crimes as well.

Framed on the basis of the MCOCA, the law was termed a ‘baby’ of then Punjab DGP Suresh Arora, who had pushed for introduction of this law to crack hard on organised crimes.

Under the proposals finalised during the previous Captain Amarinder Singh-led government, any statement by a gangster admissible before an SSP-rank officer would be admissible in court. The proposals had said that an officer of the rank of the DIG would invoke PACOCA.

Thereafter, DIG would invoke the Act in a particular case only after getting permission from the additional director general of police (ADGP) rank officer.

Though Ban was not available for comments, a senior AGTF functionary said, when any new law is framed lot of pro and anti-thoughts come before the government. “The government must be considering all views before taking any final call,” he said.