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Abhishek vs. The State of Maharashtra & Ors.

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 618Decided 20 May 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 869 of 2022
Dinesh Maheshwari · Aniruddha Bose

Background

A complainant alleged he was kidnapped, threatened at knifepoint and extorted by the appellant and others. Based on the appellant's alleged involvement in this and several other cases with a common "team leader," the police obtained approval to invoke MCOCA (a stringent law targeting organised crime syndicates) and later formal sanction to prosecute him under it. The appellant, who had also been declared an "absconder" during the investigation, challenged the sanction before the Bombay High Court and, having lost there, before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, holding that for the purpose of showing a "continuing unlawful activity" under MCOCA, what matters is that chargesheets had been filed and cognizance taken in multiple linked cases, not whether those cases eventually ended in acquittal or discharge, since witnesses turning hostile is itself one of the problems MCOCA is meant to address. It held the sanctioning authority had properly relied on a detailed body of evidence (not merely a co-accused's confession, though such confessions are admissible as corroborative evidence under Section 18 of MCOCA), and had not considered any irrelevant material. The Court also noted that the appellant's status as a declared absconder weighed against granting him relief, and that he would still get a full opportunity to challenge the sanction's validity at trial.

Lesson Learnt

Under organised-crime laws like MCOCA, a pattern of chargesheeted, cognizance-taken cases against a person can establish the required "continuing unlawful activity" even if some of those cases later end in acquittal, and courts give no indulgence to persons who have absconded from the law.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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