Haryana Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2023

Haryana Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2023 was passed in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha’s Budget Session 2023.

What does organised crime mean?

• Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit.

About Haryana’s Crime scenario:

• Haryana ranked second countrywide with a 12.3 per cent rape rate.
• Similarly, 3,724 kidnapping cases were reported in 2021. That's an average of 10 cases of kidnapping every day.
• With a kidnapping rate of 12 per cent, Haryana ranks third in the country after Assam and Orissa.
• Haryana ranks third (next only to Kerala, and Delhi) as regards crime rate across all states and union territories, says the recent report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Need of the Initiative:

• According to research on crime patterns in Haryana during the past ten years, there has been a change in the state's criminal behaviour patterns.
• In contrast to prior terrible crimes like murder, dacoity, robbery, kidnapping, and extortion, which were done by people acting alone or in concert, gangsterism and organised crime, have grown in Haryana over the past ten years.
• A well-organized network of criminals, comprising shooters, informers, spotters, and weaponry suppliers, has been developed by organised criminal gangs operating in some Haryana districts.
• These gangs are largely focused on contract assassinations, threat-based extortion from businessmen, the smuggling of drugs, protection rackets, etc. that have the potential to create enormous profits.

Provisions of the bill:

• The bill will empower the state government with powers to intercept wire, electronic or oral communication to control the menace of organised crime.
• According to the Bill, whoever commits an offence of organised crime and if it results in the death of any person, it will be punishable with death or imprisonment for life and also be liable to a fine which will not be less than Rs 1 lakh.
• In any other case, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to a fine not less than ?5 lakh.
• Significance:
  • The bill will act as a deterrent against the organized crime.
  • It will break the nexus between the organized crime and terrorism.
  • This will safeguard the state and country from the menace of organized crime.

Laws related to Organised Crime:

• Criminals engaged in contract killings shall be liable under Section 300 and Section 302 of the IPC which deals with murder.
• Similarly, an organised criminal engaged in kidnapping shall be dealt with under Section 360, Section 363 and Section 364A of the IPC.