Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed the cabinet sub-committee headed by minister Brahm Mohindra to expedite drafting of the legislation on PCOCA (Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act) to crack down on the menace of organised crime and gangsters in the state.The directive was issued at Thursday’s law and order review meeting, an official spokesperson disclosed here, adding that the PCOCA legislation may be brought in later this month.The Chief Minister’s instructions came after DGP Suresh Arora raised the issue of giving more teeth to the police to tackle organised crime and gangsters in the state. The police need to be empowered to effectively deal with criminal gangs, for which a legislation such as PCOCA was required to be introduced on an urgent basis, he told the meeting.The Chief Minister agreed that it was important to instil the fear of the law into the gangsters to check their attempts to create lawlessness and trouble in the state. The proposed legislation would ensure that the police are not obstructed in dealing with such gangsters with an iron hand, said Captain Amarinder.
Though the proposed law would provide wide powers to the police to take any action, as needed, to control gangsters and criminal gangs operating in the state, it would have sufficient checks and balances to prevent misuse, the spokesperson said.The Chief Minister had made it categorically clear that while it was essential to equip the police better to handle the threat of gangsters, who had been given a free hand to rule the roost under the previous SAD-BJP regime, his government would ensure that there is no arbitrary application of PCOCA or any human rights violation committed in the name of the law, according to the spokesperson.The Congress government had, soon after taking over earlier this year, revived the proposal to introduce PCOCA in view of the large number of organized gangs operating in the state and a spate of recent incidents of jailbreaks and violent clashes in prisons.The proposed legislation is aimed at empowering police officers of DIG rank or above to invoke PCOCA with a detailed note on reasons for IPC not being sufficient to deal with the said act of crime. At the same time, it has been proposed that the new law should be tight enough to prevent any arbitrary action under its provisions. The legislation would also have enough internal controls to secure witnesses and ensure fool-proof in-camera court proceedings.