Delhi court orders framing charges against Lawrence Bishnoi, 19 others in 2021 case

New Delhi: Setting the stage for trial, a Delhi court on Tuesday ordered framing of charges under the stringent MCOCA provisions against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and 19 others, saying there was a prima facie case against them.

Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma ordered framing charges against Bishnoi and others under Sections 3 (organised crime) and 4 (holding unaccountable wealth on behalf of a member of an organised crime syndicate) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.

Some other accused persons were also ordered to be charged under the provisions of the Arms Act and the Explosives Act.

The special cell of Delhi Police had registered an FIR in March 2021 against an alleged organised crime syndicate led by Sandeep alias Kala Jathedi and his 19 associates, including Bishnoi.

The city police alleged that Jathedi was a notorious inter-state gangster who was running an organised crime syndicate with his associates and continuously committing heinous crimes for pecuniary gains.

In Tuesday's 79-page order, judge Sharma said the prosecution's allegations were supported by the statements of witnesses, documents, sanction orders, site plan, official records, and confessional statements, and that these pieces of evidence "at the stage of framing of charge, cannot be doubted, just like that".

"I conclude that based on the record of the present case, the accused persons have prima facie committed the offences," the judge said.

Based on the facts and evidence collected by the prosecution, the judge said that Jathedi and his associates had formed an organised crime syndicate.

"He (Jathedi), along with his associates, is singly or jointly involved in the commission of several crimes and has further accumulated wealth by means of extorting from different people by use of violence or threat or intimidation or coercion or with unlawful means with the objective of gaining pecuniary gain or gain undue economic or other advantages for themselves or other persons," the judge said.

The matter has been posted for formal framing of charges on April 30.

The court order noted the statements of witnesses, according to which the members of the crime syndicate had been receiving a hefty amount of extortion and protection money on behalf of the gang from local businessmen, liquor shop owners, and local shop owners.

It said, "The amount of extortion/protection was being used for procuring arms and ammunition to operate gang activities, which is clearly shown from the recovery of a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from (some of the) accused persons." The court ordered framing charges under the Arms Act against Sampat Nehra, Jagdeep, Rajkumar, Ravinder Singh, Naresh and Priyavrat alias Fauji for possessing illegal arms and ammunition. It additionally directed framing of charges against Priyavrat under the Explosive Act provisions, as eight grenades were recovered from him.

It said that during the investigation, records of accused persons from several jails were collected, which revealed that accused persons were living a lavish lifestyle in jail and spending huge amounts inside jails, which had been received in their prison accounts.

The court said, according to the probe, members of the present organised crime syndicate were actively operating a crime syndicate from even inside jail.

"It has also been found that from time to time, many mobile phones were recovered from the gang members of this crime syndicate in jail, which were being used to execute criminal activities," the court said.

It noted that the probe revealed that some of the gang members, who managed to escape using fake passports, had been continuously operating from Thailand, Canada and the US.

"Accused Rajkumar and Virender Pratap were detained by the Thailand police and later on deported to India. Both accused stayed in Thailand for a long period, and all their expense were managed from the crime proceeds of this gang, and both accused persons remained continuously involved in heinous crimes," the court said.

It said that according to the probe, Bishnoi, Sampat Nehra and Deepak were using mobile phones in the jails of Delhi and Punjab.

"During the investigation, several FIRs in which the members of this crime syndicate were arrested have been collected. Also, the certified copies of previous cases registered against the arrested accused persons were collected and filed with the charge-sheets before this court," the court said.

"Also, from the examination of certified charge sheets and FIRs filed against the arrested accused persons, it is revealed that members of this gang were continuously involved in heinous crimes, i.e. robberies and dacoity, in which they robbed a huge amount from different innocent persons, showing terror and causing injuries to them," it added.