MARGAO
The government has been caught napping over the inordinate delay in constituting the special court under the Goa Protection of Interests of Depositors Act to try criminal cases against scamsters defrauding gullible Goan depositors.
The issue came up before the South Goa Sessions Court in an economic offences case registered by the Economic Offences Cell of the Goa Police, with the agency left with just four days to charge sheet the accused persons who are presently in jail.
With the Special Court still not constituted by the government till date, and the prospects of the three accused getting bail staring at the investigating agency as the Act mandates filing of the charge sheet within 60 days of arrest, the Economic Offences Cell is now contemplating filing the charge sheet before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The question over where exactly the charge sheet against the three accused persons would lie came to the fore before South Sessions Judge, Desmond D’Costa after public prosecutor Sarojini Sardinha contended that the charge sheet should be filed before the special court mandated under the Act.
A question was also raised whether the Economic Offences Cell can directly file the charge sheet against the accused before the Sessions Court, wherein PP Sardinha replied in the negative with the Act clearly speaking of the constitution of a special court to try the criminal offences.
With time running out now since the three accused persons, including the wife of the proprietor of a Pune-based financial consultancy and the two employees, have been in custody for close to 60 days, Economic Offences investigating officer Prasanna Bhagat has said that the Cell will file the charge sheet before the JMFC, Margao before the
60-day period.
Says PP Sarojini Sardinha, “The EOC should move a note to the higher ups or the Law Department to get the special court constituted by the government. I doubt whether the special court can be constituted within the next four days”.
EOC officials said that the agency is aware of the lapse on the part of the government in the delay in constituting the special court as mandated under the Goa Protection of Interests of Depositors Act. “We had drawn the attention of the higher ups to get special court constituted. It may take some time,” remarked the official.
In this case, the EOC had registered a case against a Pune-based consultancy, operating from the commercial capital, for defrauding Goan depositors to the tune of Rs 6.80 core.
Though the main promoter is absconding and still at large, the ECO had managed to arrest the promoter’s wife and
two employees.
