ON PAGE 2
*Appointment of new Special PP, application for adjournment find no favour with judge
*Margao police pulled up for not serving notices to witnesses
*2 Special PPs earn kudos from judge
*Court has exonerated GCA that it had printed extra tickets: Narvekar
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MARGAO
The infamous 2001 Ticketgate case allegedly involving former Goa Cricket Association (GCA) Chief Dayanand Narvekar and eight others has ended in an acquittal.
Curtains came down on the 21-year old trial of the sensational case on Friday after Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao Carlo Da Silva ordered acquittal of all the nine accused, including former GCA Chief Dayanand Narvekar, former GCA treasurer Ramashankar Das, then Secretary Vinod Phadke, ticket contractor Chinmay Fallari, Devdutt Fallari, Joaquim Pires, Venkat Raut, Gajanan Bhise and Eknath Naik, for want of evidence.
They have been acquitted of the offenses under section 468, 471, 201, 420, and 465 read with section 120-B of the IPC.
In fact, Judge Carlo was categorical in observing that the Prosecution could not adduce any evidence against the nine accused during the 21-year old trial that they had criminally conspired to do the overt acts.
With the trial having dragged on for 21 years and that the prosecution was not evincing interest in the case, Judge Carlo observed that so negligent has been the prosecution that the Court has been left to wonder whether this was done deliberately to harass the accused facing trial for 21 long years.
On a day when the Judge was scheduled to hear final arguments in the case, the government drafted Adv Nitin Sawant to appear for the prosecution, which had gone unpresented in the matter for the last couple of hearings since the Special Public Prosecutor, Adv Vinay Borkar had withdrawn from the case.
When the matter was called out for hearing, Adv Sawant filed an application for adjournment of the matter for four weeks, but the application was dismissed by Judge Carlo.
That’s not all. Judge Carlo wondered whether the prosecution was at all serious in prosecuting the matter, given that Adv Sawant was given oral instructions to appear for the state without any appointment order.
While acquitting the accused, Judge Carlo observed that the prosecution had examined 82 witnesses in support of its case, but pointed out that the State has not led any evidence on a host of points, including the point that the capacity of the Nehru stadium was only 27000.
The judge said the allegations that the act of the accused on overcrowding of the stadium seemed without much substance. The prosecution did not examine the owner or the in-charge to substantiate the claims the tickets were printed at the Press”, he added.
The Judge said there’s absolutely no evidence on record to substantiate the claim that GCA officials had knowledge of printing of tickets. There is also no evidence to reveal that a single rupee had reached the hands or bank account of the accused, who are all office bearers of the GCA, the judge observed.
Saying that the police have failed to establish the chain of circumstances linking the accused persons, the Judge said this was required as the Prosecution had charged the accused of criminal conspiracy.
“The prosecution had not proved the criminal conspiracy between the accused ticket contractor and others. None of the alleged fake tickets are part of exhibits in the file”, he said.
