No more special NIA courts required in Gujarat: High Court Chief Justice
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court has refused to recommend to the Centre setting up of additional special courts to try the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) cases in the state, an official said on Tuesday.
The Chief Justice rejected the proposal made by the division bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Niral R Mehta, citing "that there are only 12 cases under the said Act and two special courts have been designated as special courts for the said purpose".
In an order, the division bench mentioned a letter addressed by the High Court's additional registrar (administration) to the deputy registrar, criminal appeal department dated November 17.
As per the letter, the ground for rejection was that there were only 12 cases under the said Act and two special courts have been designated for the purpose, said the court in its order passed on Monday.
The court had requested the Chief Justice to consider recommending to the Centre to appoint at least two more judges to the special court as provided under section 11(6) of the NIA Act, 2008, "so that the trial can proceed expeditiously and the undertrial accused may not have to languish in jail for a long period .
The court had made the request while hearing the bail application of a man who was arrested for allegedly printing fake currency notes post the demonetisation, and the matter was investigated by the NIA.
The request had come after a special NIA judge, who was hearing the accused's case, informed that she was in-charge of almost seven trials under the NIA and was also hearing the ongoing 2002 Naroda Gam riots case.
The special judge had claimed that she also has to do other judicial work as a city civil judge and administrative work of the city civil and sessions court.
The High Court, hearing the bail plea, was told that a special NIA court had in the last three months examined only one witness in the case, and the prosecution intends to examine around 47 witnesses for which at least six months will be required.
Since the petitioner has been in jail for the last five years, the court directed the Additional Solicitor General of India to take instructions whether serious prejudice is likely to be caused to the NIA if the appellant is ordered to be released on bail.
The court posted the matter for further hearing on November 29.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
