the goan I network
MARGAO
This question assumes significance as a Canacona court has reportedly sought status of the case from the Canacona police, with directions to file the status report in the court in June.
The Canacona police have submitted a draft chargesheet to the higher ups for approval. Sources in the know said the draft chargesheet has been submitted to the Quepem Sub-divisional Police Officer with a plea to forward the same to the district police chief since the accused is a serving minister in the state government.
When The Goan contacted SP Shekhar Prabhudesai to shed light on the issue, he said his office is yet to receive a copy of the draft chargesheet till date, adding that an appropriate call will be taken at the right time.
Incidentally, the Canacona police through the DySP office, Quepem, had in October moved a file to the office of the district police chief seeking his nod to chargesheet the minister in the 2009 case, but in vain.
What’s interesting to note in this case is the fact that the police administration has been literally dragging its feet to file the chargesheet despite the fact that a public prosecutor way back in 2014 had given the go-ahead signal to chargesheet the Minister.
Since then, the police higher-ups have been virtually sitting on the file, raising many an eyebrow among the men-in-uniform in the district police force.
The Canacona police had way back in April 2009 booked the Canacona MLA along with some others under various provisions of the Indian Penal code, including under section 353 of the IPC, for obstructing government officials from discharging their lawful duties.
In this case, the Canacona police had registered the case against Tawadkar under section 143, 147, 451, 353, 224, 225 read with section 149 of the IPC based on a FIR lodged by the Range Forest Officer, Paresh Porob. In his complaint, the RFO had alleged that the forest officials had detained two persons from Karwar, Manohar Padwalkar and Gajanan Naik, for unauthorized entry into the wildlife sanctuary at Cotigao. While the duo were detained on the relevant day at around 4.30 pm, the RFO in his complaint had alleged that Tawadkar along with some persons came to the spot and forcibly took the two accused from their custody at
around 8 pm.
