Curtains have come down to the over two-decade-long ‘fake ticket case’ that stunned the State on April 6, 2001. On Friday, the court acquitted former Goa Cricket Association chief Dayanand Narvekar and others charge-sheeted in the case. The repeated absence of the special public prosecutor and the hesitancy to get on record the statements of the nine witnesses were indicators that there was no genuine intent in taking this legal battle to its logical conclusion.
The fake ticket case was made out to be a big catch back in 2001 and Goa made international headlines for all the wrong reasons. The State faced one of the most embarrassing and disgraceful moments in cricket’s history when Narvekar, who headed the GCA, along with two others, was charged for criminally conspiring with the ticket contractor for the sale of tickets by manipulation in the tender for a consideration of Rs 68 lakhs. The trio was charged for printing fake tickets and complimentary passes far over the Fatorda stadium capacity.
A long 21 years later, all these charges may have fallen flat, but the trauma and anxiety it brought to individuals and their families are unfathomable. Narvekar may have finally won the long-drawn innings in court, but the case has certainly tarnished and dented his career while also leaving an indelible blemish and scar on the characters of a few others. On the other side, while Narvekar and company got an acquittal, the damage has already been done. That's what 'revenge politics' does.
Ironically, Goa which has the dubious distinction of political defections and party-hopping has also been a trendsetter in ‘vendetta politics’ where legal cases and chargesheets have been used as tools to silence prominent political opponents. Besides the fake ticket case that Narvekar faced, the State has booked cases against Ramakant Khalap in the Mapusa Urban Bank case, Mauvin Godinho in the Power rebate case, Digambar Kamat in the mining case, Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar in the SEZ case, Ravi Naik in the Drug nexus case, and Churchill Alemao in the PWD tender case.
The government of the day has, in the past, reigned terror in the Opposition camp by targeting specific leaders, tarnishing their political careers and instilling fear with a singular mind to achieve political goals.
A cursory glance at the status of the cases against these leaders shows that either the accused has been acquitted, or the prosecution has given up chasing the cases, or worse still, the accused has become a part of the government. There has been no conviction to prove otherwise. The timeline of the infamous power rebate case shows the ugly side of power politics, let’s not forget, the BJP president in 2015 Vinay Tendulkar went on record to state that “Mauvin has a clean image” when it was the same party which pressed charges against him earlier in 1998.
The most unfortunate part of such vendetta politics is that it is manipulative, and while political objectives are achieved instantly, it takes painstakingly long to clear the air legally. The fake ticket case was in court for 21 years. The need of the hour is to have fast-track courts to try cases against legislators and time-bound investigations and trials.
