Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath cabinet on Wednesday cleared the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act (UPCOCA) draft bill to combat land and mining mafia and organised crime.

The bill has been prepared on the lines of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Srikant Sharma, the Uttar Pradesh energy minister, told reporters: "We have formulated the UPCOCA bill after a thorough study of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and similar laws in Karnataka and Gujarat."

The bill will be tabled in the winter session of the Assembly, which begins on Thursday.

The accused will not be granted bail for six months from the date of arrest. If found guilty, the offence is punishable by a minimum of three years in jail. The maximum punishment will be life imprisonment.

As in the case of the MCOCA, the UPCOCA will empower Uttar Pradesh police to intercept wire, electronic or oral communications and present them before a court as evidence against the accused.

Minister Sharma said the UPCOCA would have provisions to check misuse.

The police will be able to book a person under the UPCOCA only after getting the approval of a two-member committee of the divisional commissioner and deputy inspector-general of the range from where the accused hails.

The police will have to take the clearance of the inspector-general of the zone before filing a chargesheet against the accused.

The government will be able to confiscate the property of the accused after taking the consent of a special court constituted to hear UPCOCA cases.

The government will also constitute an organised crime control authority under the supervision of the principal secretary of the home department to keep a watch on criminal activities in Uttar Pradesh.

Each district will have organised crime control authorities headed by the district magistrate.

An "appealing authority" will be constituted under the chairmanship of a retired high court judge to hear cases decided by the special courts.

Sharma said the draft bill had defined organised crime in detail.

"Kidnapping for ransom, illegal mining, manufacturing illicit liquor and its sale, acquiring contracts on the basis of muscle power, organised exploitation of forest produce, trade in wildlife and fake medicines, grabbing of government and private properties, and extortion will come under the ambit of the new law," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly had passed the UPCOCA during Mayawati's rule in 2008 but then President Pratibha Patil had rejected the stringent law.