'Approval for Organised Crime Act soon'

By Our Staff Correspondent

GULBARGA, AUG. 29. The Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, has assured the State Government that the Centre will give its approval and clear hurdles in securing the President's assent for the Control of Organised Crime Act (COCA) at the earliest.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, the Home Minister, Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, said Mr. Advani gave the assurance in a response to a memorandum submitted by the State Government seeking early approval of the COCA which was pending with the Union Government for the past one year.

Mr. Kharge said Mr. Advani was convinced of the need for such a law to deal with organised crime and notorious criminals.

He said he was not aware of the reason why the Centre was withholding assent for the COCA. The delay had prevented the State Government from stepping up its efforts to curb organised crime. The COCA was enacted on the model of a similar law in Maharashtra without any addition or omission. ``While the Maharashtra Act was given assent, the Karnataka Act was pending for the past one year,'' he added.

Mr. Kharge said the State Government could have ordered the arrest of the persons involved in the incident at Vanenur in Bellary District, in which a Dalit woman was stripped and paraded naked on Sunday. The culprits, who hailed from a Scheduled Tribe, could not be booked under the Prevention of Atrocities against SC and ST Act, and they were released by a local court in Bellary, he added.

Mr. Kharge said he did not agree with the view that by failing to present its case properly, the prosecution had allowed the seven persons arrested to be released on bail. Although the minister did not have details of the provisions under which the accused were booked, he claimed the Bellary Police had not failed in handling the case effectively.

He admitted that the persons involved in the heinous crime against a woman should not have been released on bail and, as per the directions of the Government, the Bellary Police were likely to arrest the seven accused once again.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of Bellary District took action to prevent the accused from entering the district.

To a question, Mr. Kharge claimed that the law and order situation was under control, and the crime rate and attacks on dalits were not increasing as was being projected. A comparison of the crime rates of the previous years with the rate for the current year would prove this, he said.

On the incident in Shimoga in which a youth was clubbed to death during a procession for immersion of a Ganesha idol on Sunday, Mr. Kharge said it was too early to say whether any particular group was involved. Police were investigating the incident, and the guilty would be punished ``without any fear or favour,'' he added.

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Section  : Southern States
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