The High Court of Bombay at Goa has quashed and set aside the conviction of three persons for the murder of Tyron Nazareth at Calangute fish market, observing that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.
The appellant accused – Joseph Brandon Sequeira, Ceon Bruno Fernandes, and Mahesh Rampal, all lodged at Colvale Jail -- had challenged the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, North Goa, Mapusa, dated May 30, 2023, which had found them guilty under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 each.
According to case details, on June 24, 2017, around 10:30 pm, complainant Dipesh Naik and his friend George Denzil Noronha were having drinks at Calangute fish market when Tyron Nazareth joined them. Around 11:30 pm, while they went to purchase beer at Vicky Bar, Sequeira and two others approached them on an Activa scooter asking about Nazareth's whereabouts.
The complainant reportedly told them he didn’t know his whereabouts and asked them to search. Thereafter, the accused allegedly approached Nazareth at the fish market and assaulted him with deadly weapons including a chopper, knife, and sword, before fleeing and leaving Nazareth bleeding. The victim succumbed to his injuries later.
The First Information Report was registered and the three accused were arrested on June 27, 2017. During the trial, the prosecution examined 19 witnesses, relying on three main pillars: eyewitness accounts, recovery of weapons and clothes, and identification during the Test Identification Parade (TIP).
The defense argued that in the absence of a reliable ocular testimony by the eyewitnesses, the evidence of recovery of weapons and clothes and the Test Identification Parade assumes significance. “The recovery of weapons and clothes is from an accessible place open to the public and therefore is rendered unreliable. The TIP was held after almost a month of the arrest of the accused. There is no cogent reason that the prosecution has advanced for not holding the TIP promptly,” it said.
The court also noted concerns that prosecution did not cite any reason for not holding TIP promptly, “When the fate of the accused persons hangs solely on the identification by the witnesses, it is the duty of the prosecution to state why the Test Identification Parade could not be arranged immediately after the arrest of the accused and without loss of time. Unless there is a good reason for the delay, the probative value of the Test Identification Parade gets adversely affected,” the Division Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Ashish Chavan said.
“Lack of the contemporaneous record indicating the arrangement of the dummies in consonance with the guidelines set out to regulate the conduct of the Test Identification Parades further weakens the credibility of the identification,” it further said while setting aside the trial court’s order.
