Nearly seven years after Canacona police had registered a criminal case against Sports Minister and Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar, the district police authorities appear are still in no haste to file a chargesheet against Tawadkar in the court of law. Guilherme Almeida has found out that the district police have been literally dragging its feet to accord its nod to Canacona police to chargesheet the Sports Minister despite the fact that a public prosecutor in October last had given opinion in favour of chargesheeting the legislator
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Why is the South Goa district police sitting on a file seeking approval to chargesheet Sports Minster and Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar in a 2009 criminal case registered at Canacona police station? When The Goan posed this question to the district police chief, Superintendent of Police, Shekhar Prabhudesai, to shed light on the delay in chargesheeting the case, he initially tried to defend the huge delay by saying that investigations in the case are still underway, notwithstanding that the case against the MLA was registered by the police way back in 2009. But, when The Goan drew Prabhudesai's attention that a public prosecutor had way back in October 2015 given the legal opinion favouring chargesheeting of the Minister so that he stands for trial in the court of law, he merely said he would check up the file again to confirm about the public prosecutor’s opinion.
Indeed, the huge delay in according sanction by the office of the Superintendent of Police, South to Canacona police to chargesheet the Sports Minister has raised a hornet’s nest in South Goa police circles against the backdrop of the recent chargesheet filed against Calangute MLA Michael Lobo by the Crime Branch.
Reliable sources in the South district Police headquarters told The Goan that 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 Parab. In his complaint, the RFO had alleged that the forest officials had detained two persons from Karwar, Manohar Padwalkar and Gajanan Naik for their unauthorized entry into the Wild Life Sanctuary at Cotigao. While the duo were detained on the relevant day at around 4.30 pm, the RFO in his complaint alleged that Tawadkar along with some persons came to the spot and forcibly took the two accused from their custody at around 8 pm.
Incidentally, while the SP, South maintained that the investigations into the seven-year-old case is still underway, an alibi he advanced to defend the huge delay in chargesheeting the Minister, reliable sources in the know said a public prosecutor had indeed given the go ahead to file the chargesheet against the Minister, saying it’s a fit case for filing of the chargesheet.
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DRAGGING THEIR FEET
- Although 7 years have passed, SP South is yet to give its nod to Canacona cops to chargesheet Tawadkar, while on the other hand, Crime Branch has swiftly moved to chargesheet Calangute MLA Michael Lobo in a case related to alleged forgery
- This is despite the public prosecutor's go ahead to file the chargesheet against the Minister
