Additional SP Aniket Bharati in his opening remarks underscored important aspects of the MPDA Act, 1981.
In Malegaon, around a hundred policemen took a short course on how to enforce the MPDA Act, 1981. Today’s training of these officers holds much significance as lately life-threatening assaults on revenue officials at the hands of the sand mafia have seen an exponential upsurge. Besides, illegal activities of bootleggers and slumlords, mainly in rural parts, have also seen a rapid increase in recent past.
For the uninitiated, the Act empowers the police officers to prepare a proposal to be sent to the District Magistrate for preventive detention of dangerous persons for dangerous activities as defined under the law. Such persons can be detained in jail for one year without being put on a trial.
Additional Superintendent of Police Aniket Bharati under whose stewardship the training session was conducted told The Voice of Malegaon, “With today’s crash course, we hope our officers will equip themselves with the right knowledge of the MPDA Act and know how to enforce it in letter and spirit when faced with a situation wherein they have to deal with dangerous persons and their activities as defined under the law.”
Sub-Divisional Police Officer Bhusawal Krishnat Pingale was the expert speaker.
At the training session, the cops got to learn how to set the process under the MPDA Act in motion, right from preparing the proposal for preventive detention at the police station level to sending it to the District Superintendent of Police’s office. They got to learn each and every nitty-gritty at the brief session.
Krishnat Pingale, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Bhusawal, was the expert speaker at the session as he has handled around 25 cases under the Act in his area. He said the provisions of the Act are slapped on bootleggers, video pirates, black marketeers, and sand smugglers etc. Pingale added under Section 3 of the MPDA Act, 1981, a Police Commissioner for an urban area and a District Magistrate for rural areas is the Competent Authority.
“Persons with five years’ past criminal records who continue to indulge in criminal activities despite preventive actions had been taken against them face the charges under the MPDA Act,” Pingale said. The DM or the CP can issue an order for preventive detention without putting the accused on trial and within twelve days of issuing the order they have to take prior permission from the Additional Chief Secretary Home, Pingale said.
(From left) SDPO Pushkaraj Suryavanshi, SDPO Suraj Gunjal, Additional SP Aniket Bharati, SDPO Krishnat Pingale and SDPO Teghbir Singh Sadhu pose for the shutterbug. (Pic: The Voice of Malegaon)
“After detention order, an Advisory Board of the High Court holds hearing within forty nine days. The said Advisory Board consists of a sitting and two retired high court judges who conduct the hearing,” Pingale said. If the Advisory Board finds that the detention was uncalled for, it can set aside or quash the order issued by the DM or the CP,” Pingale added.
According to Pingale, if the Additional Chief Secretary finds there were no sufficient grounds for preventive detention, he or she can also set aside or cancel the order by the DM or the CP.
SDPO IPS Teghbir Singh Sadhu said, “The MPDA Act, which is one of the foremost tools in the entire preventive actions setup, has great deterrence effect. In view of the upcoming elections as well as to achieve the overall aim of prevention of crime, such training on MPDA Act was organised.”
SDPO IPS Suraj Gunjal said six senior police officers and around hundred officers along with their writers took the training session. “We got to learn aspects such as how to get permission, how to sustain the case in the High Court, how to prepare proposals that can subsequently establish the law and order under this effective law,” Gunjal said. The Act can be implemented effectively with close coordination between the police department and the district administration, Gunjal further said.
