New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS): A court here Wednesday discharged Brijesh Singh, an alleged mafia don from Uttar Pradesh, and his associate Tribhuvan Singh, of stringent MCOCA charges.

The court discharged both the accused saying Brijesh was arrested Jan 28, 2008 but "the state woke up belatedly in slapping a case against the accused people after almost five years which approach does not appear to be fair".

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma discharged Brijesh and Tribhuvan of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) charges, saying the court lacks jurisdiction.

"Since court lacks jurisdiction, there is no prime facie case to frame charges against the accused, namely Brijesh Singh and Tribhuvan Singh," the court said.

Brijesh was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Odisha in 2008 and handed over to the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Police accused him of demanding Rs.1 crore from a Delhi-based businessman in 2006.

The Special Cell slapped charges under MCOCA against the accused, alleging that during the probe into a cheating and forgery case against Brijesh, it was found the offence was an outcome of an organised crime syndicate being run by him and his associates.

The police alleged that Brijesh was involved in 39 cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion among others and was associated with Dawood. Most of the cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh.

The court noted that police filed chargesheet against the accused in only one case. The court said MCOCA can be invoked if the chargesheet against the accused was filed in more than one case under the territorial jurisdiction of Delhi. It added the provisions of MCOCA were not extended to offence committed by accused in other states.