Delhi HC grants bail in MCOCA drug-syndicate case on parity with sister freed by Supreme Court; Section 21(4) MCOCA met
The question: Is the appellant entitled to bail on parity with her co-accused sister, whom the Supreme Court released in the same prosecution?
The Delhi High Court has granted regular bail to Deepa Singh, accused of being part of an organised drug syndicate, holding that after the Supreme Court released her co-accused sister Anuradha in the same case, nothing in the material placed her on a qualitatively graver footing. Justice Sanjeev Narula held that, on broad probabilities, there were reasonable grounds for believing she was not guilty of the MCOCA offences alleged, which satisfied the first limb of Section 21(4) MCOCA, and that the second limb was also met. The appeal was filed under Section 12 of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 against an order of 3 September 2026 of the Special Exclusive Court-13 (MCOCA), Rouse Avenue Courts, rejecting her regular bail. FIR No. 186/2025 of P.S. Sultanpuri followed a raid on 10 March 2025 in which 385.53 grams, gross weight, of heroin and 47.09 grams of Tramadol were recovered. The prosecution invoked MCOCA against an alleged family-run syndicate headed by the appellant's mother, Kusum. The appellant and her sister Anuradha @ Chiku surrendered on 12 September 2025. Anuradha's bail appeal was dismissed by the High Court on 6 January 2026, but on 24 July 2026 the Supreme Court set that judgment aside and directed her release on bail.