the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has dismissed an appeal filed by the Goa Police against the acquittal of Tariq Ahmed Battlo, an alleged terrorist who was allegedly picked up by the Goa Police from the Margao Police Station carrying a suitcase with allegedly explosive substances.
The High Court bench of Justices M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar held that the trial court was right in acquitting the accused as the Police were unable to prove that Battlo was indeed picked up from the railway station, or that the stuff he was carrying in his suitcase was indeed explosives.
According to the Goa Police, based on a tip they received they apprehended Battlo from Margao Railway Station as he alighted from the Mangala Express on March 10, 2006 at 8:30 pm. A search of the suitcase which he was carrying, revealed some black powder which was later on identified as RDX, two cylindrical objects which were later on identified as detonators and two grenades which, in the present case, were never analysed or examined in order to know whether they were grenades, as the police claimed.
However, Battlo a native of Jammu and Kashmir claimed that he was never arrested at Margao Konkan Railway Station on March 10, 2006, but was arrested on March 3, 2006 at 3.30 pm to 4 pm, near Grace Church, at Margao and after being detained illegally, it was made to appear as if he was held at the Railway Station.
The High Court also noted the reservations of the trial court which noted the lack of independent witnesses while the alleged arrest was being effected pointing out that the police claim that it did not receive cooperation from the railway authorities was difficult to believe since “it is really not conceivable that Railway officials, if requested to cooperate in a matter of this nature, would decline co-operation, since it is the case of the Prosecution that the respondent was a ticketless traveller and had committed an offence under the Railways Act by carrying dangerous articles during travel.”
The Police also couldn’t explain how newspaper reports that he was arrested prior to March 10 came to be published.
