Mumbai, August 24: The Maharashtra government has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the revocation of a stringent anti-organised crime law against those accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case by a special court here.
The special court’s decision to drop charges under the provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was “unconstitutional and bad in law”, the government has said in its petition filed last week.
The High Court today adjourned hearing on the matter till September 8 after directing the state to serve a copy of their appeal to all the 11 arrested accused in the case.
On July 31, the special court dropped all the charges under MCOCA from the case after observing that the accused do not form part of an organised crime syndicate.
It had observed that MCOCA was not applicable as two charge sheets against at least one of the accused, which was essential to invoke the Act, was not available in this case.
The court had also quashed the sanction order passed for invocation of MCOCA in the case.
The state, in its appeal, has said the quashing of the sanction order from the competent authority (a top ranking police officer) was “unconstitutional”. .
—Agencies