The Goan Network
Quepem
Family members, relatives and friends of Michael Cunha, 45, from Bobrumoddi, Quepem and some of the passengers who were in the bus at the time of the accident along with ward councillor Manuel Colaco met the PI of Quepem police station Brutano Paixeto and expressed their dissent over the manner in which the investigation into the accident is being carried-out by PSI Remedious D’Souza.
It may be recalled that on January 22, around 5 pm, the bus proceeding to Quepem from Margao crashed into an Activa scooter killing one Michael Cunha at Agramod, Gudi-Paroda.
Cunha had returned home from London just a couple of days before.
Dylan Diniz, the cousin of the deceased, resented the delay in arresting the driver and his quick release on bail.
Councillor Manuel Colaco questioned the PI as to why the driver was not arrested soon after the accident.
PI Paixeto said that without concrete evidence it was not possible to arrest him and it was only after receiving the post-mortem report that they could arrest the driver.
When Colaco asked if the PSI had conducted an inspection of the scooter and the bus which was involved in the accident as nothing is mentioned in the panchanama report, the PI said he was unaware.
The relatives of the deceased expressed displeasure over the behavior of the investigating officer PSI Remedious D’Souza who declined to part with any details and told them that they would get all the details in court.
PI Paixeto informed them that PSI Remedious D’Souza had been removed from the case and it was being handed over to PSI Arun Andrew for further investigations.
When asked about the medical report of the bus driver, PI Paixeto informed that the medical report from the Primary Health Center, Quepem had certified that the driver was not under the influence of alcohol.
However, when asked why his blood samples were not sent for testing, PI Paixeto said that the samples were collected and sent to Hospicio Hospital at Margao for testing but the same were rejected as they found that the seal was not proper.
Cousin of the deceased Diniz suspects that the blood samples were tampered with to save the driver and the fact that the police took more than 5 hours to take the driver for medical checkup was deliberate.
