Alleged Dawood associate discharged in MCOCA case

Brijesh Singh, who was allegedly associated with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and his aide were today discharged by a court here of charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in a case lodged against them by the Delhi Police.
The court discharged Brijesh and Tribhuvan Singh, saying it lacked jurisdiction to try them for the offences under MCOCA and the special cell of Delhi Police "woke up belatedly" in slapping the charges under the stringent law against them.
"The sum result of the above discussion is that since this court lacks jurisdiction, there is no prima facie case to frame charges against the accused persons namely Brijesh Singh and accused Tribhuvan Singh by this court under section 3 (4) and 4 of MCOCA Act.

"Both the accused persons are hereby discharged for want of jurisdiction in this court," Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma said.
The special cell had slapped charges under MCOCA against the accused alleging that during the probe into a cheating and forgery case against Brijesh, it was found that the offence was an outcome of an organised crime syndicate being run by him and his associates.
The police had alleged that Brijesh Singh was involved in 39 cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion among others and was associated with Dawood. Most of the cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh.

It had also claimed that through the crime syndicate, the accused and his aides were controlling 38 companies and huge financial transactions took place between them.
The police had chargesheeted Brijesh and Tribhuvan only, saying that the probe against other members of the alleged crime syndicate was going on.
The court, however, discharged both the accused saying, Brijesh was arrested on January 28, 2008 but "the state woke up belatedly in slapping a case against the accused persons after almost five years which approach does not appear to be fair....