South Goa district Superintendent of Police, Shekhar Prabhudesai, might have feigned ignorance on the legal opinion submitted by a Margao-based public prosecutor to go ahead with the chargesheet against Sports Minister and Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar in a 2009 criminal case registered at Canacona police station. The Goan investigations, however, have revealed that the police have been literally sitting on the public prosecutor’s legal opinion for close to two years now, reports Guilherme Almeida
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When The Goan asked district police Chief, SP Shekhar Prabhudesai earlier this week why the police has been dragging its feet to chargesheet Sports Minister, Ramesh Tawadkar, in the 2009 criminal case, he replied saying that investigations in the case are currently underway. And, he virtually feigned ignorance when The Goan drew his attention to the legal opinion furnished by a public prosecutor, giving the go-ahead signal for the police to chargesheet the Minister in the court of law.
Inquiries conducted by The Goan, however, have revealed that it’s now close to two years since the public prosecutor had given the opinion to chargesheet the Minister. It is learnt that the public prosecutor had given the opinion way back in May 2014, but the Canacona police and the police higher-ups have been literally sitting on the file.
In the legal opinion, the public prosecutor is believed to have advised the Canacona police to approach the Court for condonation of delay given that the filing of the chargesheet against Tawadkar was barred by limitation as the police had failed to chargesheet the case within two years.
Interestingly, the public prosecutor had also suggested that the police consider seeking permission of the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly before chargesheeting the Minister. The police, however, did not approach the office of the Speaker on grounds that the alleged criminal offence committed by Tawadkar was not in any way connected to his discharge of duties as a MLA.
Inquiries have further revealed that the police had approached the public prosecutor for legal opinion before chargesheeting the case only after completing investigations in the case -- a fact contrary to the claim made by the SP, South that the chargesheet in the case has not been filed since the case is still under investigation. Moreover, the public prosecutor was apparently satisfied with the investigations conducted by Canacona police as evident by the fact that there’s wasn’t any new angle suggested for investigations in the legal opinion.
That’s not all. While SP Prabhudesai told The Goan earlier this week that he would check up with the police whether any public prosecutor had given a go-ahead signal for filing of the chargesheet against Tawadkar, inquiries has revealed that the file pertaining to the sanction applied by the Canacona police to chargesheet the Sports Minister has been lying in the SP’s office since October, 2015.
Sources in the know said the police had moved the filed to the district police chief for sanction to chargesheet the Minister only as a matter of abundant precaution taking into account the status of the accused. It is learnt that it was only after the completion of the investigations into the case that the Canacona police had moved the office of the police higher-ups for approval to chargesheet the Canacona legislator.
In this particular case, Canacona police had registered the case against Tawadkar in 2009 under section 143, 147, 451, 353, 224, 225 read with section 149 of the IPC upon a FIR lodged by the Range Forest officer, Paresh Parab. The RFO had alleged in his complaint that the forest officials had detained two persons from Karwar, Manoar Padwalkar and Gajanan Naik for their unauthorised entry into the Wild Life Sanctuary at Cotigao. While the duo were detained on the relevant day at around 4.30 pm, the RFO in his complaint alleged that Tawadkar along with some persons came to the spot and allegedly forcibly took the two accused from their custody at around 8 pm.
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143 -- Unlawful Assembly
147 -- Rioting
451 -- Trespass
353 -- Use of criminal force to deter government servant from discharging duty
224 -- Resistance by a person to his lawful apprehension
