MARGAO
November 1, 2024 has marked four years since thousands of Goemkars from all walks of life joined the historic midnight vigil on the intervening night of November 1-2, 2020 to oppose in one voice the double tracking project and to save Goa from being converted into a coal hub.
Strange it may sound but true that the Goa Police has suddenly realised omissions in the investigations in the criminal case registered on November 4, 2020 against the 10 anti-double tracking activists.
More than two years after the police had chargesheeted the 10 activists in the case before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao, the Maina-Curtorim police has on Tuesday moved an application before the JMFC, Margao with a prayer to issue permission to carry out further investigations in the case and file necessary report in the Court.
In the application filed before the JMFC, Margao on Tuesday, the police submitted before the Court that the then Police Inspector of Maina-Curtorim Police Station along with PIs and staff of other concerned police stations had reported for bandobast duty to control law and order at Chandor outpost. The application, however, pointed out that inadvertently the station diary extracts of deputing the PIs and the staff of the concerned police stations remained to be collected during the investigation. “The station diary extracts are essential to present the truth of the presence of the complainant and witnesses at the time of commission of the crime,” the application stated.
That’s not all. The application further pointed out that the statements of Salcete Joint Mamlatdars, Raghuraj Faldessai, Joint Mamlatdar-III, Dattaraj K Gauns Dessai, Joint Mamlatdar-V and Gaurav S Gaonkar, Joint Mamlatdar-VI inadvertently remains to be recorded.
“The eye witnesses’ testimonies of the Mamlatdars are material and essential for this Court to effectively adjudicate and evaluate the truth in the case,” the application stated, ‘reiterating that investigation in the case is just and necessary in order to bring the true facts of the case before the Court which is goal of a criminal trial’.
“Furthermore, the aforementioned investigation is crucial, essential and significant for effective adjudication in the case and also to meet the ends of justice. It is stated that the examination of witnesses has not commenced in the present case and no prejudice is bound to be occasioned to the accused if the present application is allowed as the defence of the accused has not been opened up or disclosed. It is stated that the present application is being filed to ensure that there will be no travesty of justice for want of necessary investigation,” the police application stated.
Sources said the application filed by the Maina-Curtorim police will come up for arguments at the next date of hearing.
Govt trying to delay trial: Capt Viriato
MARGAO: “Tariq Pe Tariq”, was how South Goa MP Captain Viriato Fernandes remarked after the hearing in the case chargesheeted against him and nine other activists in the historic Chandor midnight agitation case was adjourned on Tuesday.
After coming out of the Court along with other activists accused in the case, including Abhijit Prabhudesai, Diana Tavares, Sabita Mascarenhas, Creson Antao, Freddy Travasso, Vikas Bhagat, Viriato told the media that they have been given another date by the Court.
“Somewhere we feel that the government is intentionally trying to put spokes in the trial and cause delay in the proceedings. People will also realise that it is a government conspiracy to delay the trial since there is nothing in the case. If there was something in the case, the trial would have started,” he said.
He added: “The fact that they are putting applications at this stage of the trial only goes to show that the government is trying to delay since they have nothing to prove against the activists charged in the case.”
10 activists face charges for unlawful assembly
MARGAO: The Maina-Curtorim police had charged the 10 anti-coal activists for blocking the Chandor road on the intervening night of November 1-2, 2020 during the historic midnight agitation.
The prosecution’s case is that on the intervening night of November 1-2, 2020 from 23.30 hours to 05.00 hours at road connected to crossing of Chandor railway gate, the accused persons formed an unlawful assembly and wrongly restrained the movement of the vehicular transport and other pedestrian by standing on the middle of the road for protesting against the order issued by District Collector South Goa regarding double tracking of railway track, thereby committing an offence punishable under Sections 143, 145, 341 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
The 10 activists who were charged by the Maina-Curtorim police include Abhijit Prabhudesai, Freddy Travasso, Vikas Bhagat, John Douglas Coutinho, Diana Tavares, Creson Antao, Viriato Fernandes, Royla Fernandes and Sabita Mascarenhas.
These activists had prayed for their discharge from the case on grounds that the prosecution did not make any case against them. Their plea for discharge, however, did not find favour with the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao when the Court passed an order dismissing the plea in mid-July 2023.
