Govt's 'double standards' on MCOCA irk BJP

New Delhi, Nov 23 (UNI) The BJP today demanded that the UPA government share with the countrymen the status of the investigations in the Batla House encounter and the September 13 serial blasts in the Capital alleging that Delhi police are not giving any information on the issue.

''We fail to understand why Delhi police did not invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act ( MCOCA) against the accused in the encounter and blasts while the law has been in existence since 2002,'' said BJP senior leader and general secretary Arun Jaitley.

At a press briefing, BJP leader asked the government to explain as to what ''prevented'' it from invoking MCOCA against the accused in the Jamia Millia Encounter and the serial blasts in the Capital.

To a specific query, the BJP leader stressed that the use of the stringent law did not depend on the nature of the offence or the religion of the accused.

He said it simply shows the double standards of the Congress, which uses different yardsticks for the accused in Maharashtra and Delhi.

Mr Jaitley's remark assumes special significance in the wake of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, suspended Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and seven others, accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast, being tried by the MCOCA court in Mumbai.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) probing the Malegaon bomb blast case, has invoked the stringent MCOCA in the case on Thursday.

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