PANAJI
The State government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court at Goa that they will not be withdrawing the cases filed against the villagers of Melauli for allegedly turning violent during a protest against the setting up of the project at Xel Melaulim in Sattari.
The villagers had filed a case for quashing the FIR filed against them.
Speaking to reporters, Government Advocate Pravin Faldesai said that the question of withdrawing the prosecution didn’t arise because it was a case of a violent protest with the use of deadly weapons.
“We have submitted to the court today that there is no question of withdrawing the prosecution on account of change in the government decision. Our stand is clear that people have a right to agitate, people have a right to protest for as long as it is a peaceful protest. But the records reveal, the complaints also clearly say that there were deadly weapons used, police officers were badly beaten up and in such case as a whole the government cannot withdraw the prosecution,” Adv Faldesai, said.
“On the last occasion, the Court had asked whether the government is inclined to withdraw the prosecution because the decision of the government of setting up of IIT in Xel Melauli has been called off,” he added.
The issue was whether those criminal proceedings will be quashed or not.
“In an individual case, if we feel that a person was not involved or if the role played by him/her was not serious, then the case can be quashed, that is fine. But as a policy decision, in my opinion, the government should not withdraw the prosecution in such cases where there is the use of deadly weapons, the use of violence under the name of protest,” he added.
