Delhi court grants bail in MCOCA case, counsel argues that accused when shown absconder was supplying water to police chowki

New Delhi [India], June 18 (ANI): A Delhi Court has granted bail to an alleged member of an organised crime syndicate, who was booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and shown absconder before his arrest, with his counsel submitting that the man was regularly supplying water to a chowki under Hari Nagar Police Station during the period he was reported to have been absconding.

After considering the facts and circumstances, Tis Hazari Court Special Judge Shivali Sharma granted bail to Saurav Bhargav, alias Bhinda. He is alleged to be a member of Salman Tyagi gang, which allegedly runs an organised crime syndicate.

The case pertains to Hari Nagar Police Station. An FIR under MCOCA was lodged on August 13, 2019 against Salman Tyagi and his 22 associates, including Bhinda. Delhi Police filed a supplementary chargesheet on April 24, 2024.

Bhinda was arrested on December 23, 2023, and has sought regular bail under section 439 CrPC.

After considering the material on record, the Special judge granted bail to the accused.

“I am constrained to hold that there are reasonable grounds to believe that accused Saurav Bhargav is not guilty of offences under MCOCA for which he has been chargesheeted,” the judge noted.

It is also well on record that the accused was not involved in any kind of criminal activities after 2018, the court said in the order passed on May 24.

Defence counsel Deepak Sharma argued that the accused has been wrongly booked by the Investigation Officer without any substantial evidence regarding him being a member of any crime syndicate. He was never called by the police to join the investigation before his arrest.

“In fact, during the period in which he has been shown to be absconded, he was regularly supplying water at Police Chowki Hari Nagar under the jurisdiction of Police Station Hari Nagar and thus was very well available in Delhi within the knowledge of police officials of PS Hari Nagar. Still, no efforts were made to make him join the investigation, nor any notice was issued to him for this purpose,” Sharma argued.

The bail plea was opposed by the Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) who submitted that allegations against the accused were serious in nature. He argued that the name of the accused has been specifically mentioned in the sanction for lodging of FIR under MCOCA.

The Additional Public Prosecutor argued that the accused is involved in several cases and “extorted money by threatening financers, property dealers and bookies”.