Here is why: Matka not defined in law n Seizure of booklets not enough to convict n Cops never produce witnesses
PANAJI
The ongoing drive of the Goa Police, springing from the High Court directions giving the cops two weeks’ time to act against matka bookies in the state is a farce.
Till date, all cases of matka argued before the trial courts for violating the Goa Gambling Act have resulted in acquittals of the alleged bookies despite the accused being caught ‘red handed’ while accepting ‘matka’ bets.
The sole reasons is that the term ‘matka’ is entirely missing from the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976. The letter of law lays down neither the nature of the offence nor the punitive action attracted therein and as a result, the format of chargesheet, manner of investigation and even the judgments is identical in nature.
In other words, the police raids on matka dens conducted so far are fated to be much ado about nothing.
Matka cases are booked under Section 11 (2) of the Act. The Section lays down that ‘playing money or other valuable thing with cards, dice, counters or other instruments of gaming used in playing any game not being a game of mere skill on any public street or thoroughfare or in any place to which the public have or are permitted to have access’ is an offence punishable with imprisonment for not less than 10 days and a fine of Rs 1,000.
There is heavy reliance on this loophole that the law itself doesn’t define the term ‘matka’ as an illegal gaming activity. This game of chance isn’t linked with a form of gambling and the term doesn’t find any mention in the Act.
No investigating officer has ever testified how this game of chance is played, a vital piece of evidence which could form the basis for a possible case law in the mater.
The greatest defence of the accused rests in letting the panchnama go uncontested. The accused also do not deny that they were caught with the standard articles. Defence only denies that the accused were engaged in matka activities.
A quick perusal of the judgments in matka cases shows that the non-examination of independent eye witnesses to the matka raids conducted in open public spaces proved fatal to the prosecution’s case at each instance.
It is also repeatedly highlighted that the offence of gambling cannot be committed by only one person and there has to be somebody to offer bets before the accused accepts them. Police have failed to bring on record even one such person, who placed matka bets.
Individual amount attached from each bookie varies between Rs 100 to Rs 6,000. But the judgments observed that ‘there is no evidence to prove that the cash was derived from gambling activity’.
“The prosecution ought to have proved by way of some cogent evidence that the MOs (modus operandi) were used in a game of chance with the help of the MO (articles),” is the common observation by the judiciary.
Offering an insight to the identical chargesheets filed in matka cases, leading to almost similar judgments with predictable outcome, sources from the police department hinted that in some of the cases, raids need not even be conducted.
Arrests of matka bookies are not the publicly-staged raids as they are made out to be in the chargesheets. “Instead, what happens is quite a simple chain of events. Police station in-charges are only meeting set targets of registering a certain number of matka cases,” a source revealed.
Meanwhile, the raids against matka gambling continued on Tuesday with police booking another 15 cases.
“All known and possible locations have been raided by the Goa Police. However, due to the stringent action taken on the preceding day, only 15 cases have been booked on Tuesday, majority of which were in South Goa. Rest of the matka activities have been found to be suspended. Special Police teams are on a close surveillance”, Superintendent of Police (Crime) Priyanka Kashyap said.
