MARGAO
When will curtains finally come down on the trial in the sensational 2001 fake cricket ticket case - dragging on in the courts since the last 16 years?
This question has come back to haunt the prosecution, the defence and the witnesses in the sensational case with the court issuing summons to Congress leader Girish Chodankar to depose in the infamous case - more than 16 years Girish along with his youth Congress workers had knocked the doors of the Margao court to investigate in the fake cricket scam. Along with Girish, the court has also summoned then DySP Shirish Thorat, besides two other local witnesses as the weekly trial in the case will take place before Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao on Thursday.
Inquiries by The Goan has revealed that the prosecution has managed to examine around 52-55 witnesses in the case so far, more than three years after the actual trial commenced before the JMFC, Margao. And, the prosecution has miles to go before examining all the material witnesses in the case, pegged around 215, with many an outstation witnesses untraceable in their native states and local witnesses unable to clearly recall the chain of events in the cheating case.
Says special public prosecutor, Adv Pritam Moraes: "Trial has not come to an end not because of the number of witnesses, but simply because many of the outstation witnesses are not traceable and the summons keep coming returned as unserved. We need to take a call somewhere whether to dispense with the outstation witnesses, who are not traceable. Also, the prosecution needs to take a call how many local witnesses should be examined. These are the issues that need to be addressed," he said.
While trial of the sensational case is taken up on a weekly basis, examination of the witnesses have not kept pace due to a host of reasons, including the non-availability of the witnesses. Besides, there's no dedicated police officer to coordinate between the police and the prosecution and to take decisions in connection with the case, informed sources in the know.
"A lot of changes have taken place over a period of time since the last decade and half, but curtains failed to come down in this case. The investigating officer, then PI Umesh Gaonkar is today the Superintendent of Police. Government's first special public prosecutor in the case, A Lawande rose to become the High Court judge. Similarly, then district judge Nelson A Britto, who had to decide on then GCA chief Dayanand Narvekar's bail plea in the case when he was the South Goa district and Sessions judge, also rose to become judge of the High Court," remarked a police officer in the know.
The April 6, 2001 ODI match between Australia and India had hit the headlines after cricket fans with genuine tickets were left stranded outside the Nehru stadium, Fatorda. Many of these ardent cricket fans had bore the brunt
of police lathis despite possessing valid tickets for the cricket match.
The Margao police later charged Narvekar, Ramshankar Das and Vinod Phadke for cheating after allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with the ticket contractor, Chinmay Fallari for the sale of tickets by manipulation in the tender for a consideration of Rs 68 lakh.
