GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO
Has the Margao police lost interest in the infamous 2001 Cricket TicketGate case involving former Goa Cricket Association office bearers headed by then President Dayanand Narvekar and eight others?
This question has come to the fore with neither the police nor the prosecution witnesses making time to attend the trial before the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao, virtually stalling the weekly trial of the sensational fake cricket tickets case, which has been dragging on for a decade and half.
That's not all. Leave alone the investigation officer, Umesh Gaonkar, who's now promoted and posted as the Superintendent of Police, Security, the Margao police does not even spare a dedicated head constable or a constable to file the service of summons reports in the court.
On the last day of hearing, neither the IO nor any of the prosecution witnesses were present in the court room. This prompted the Judicial Magistrate to issue summons to the IO to remain present in the court at the next date
of hearing.
With the trial court issuing summons for his presence in the court, IO Umesh Gaonkar, SP Security, had recently dashed off a two-page letter to his counterpart heading the South Goa district police, Arvind Gawas, IPS, with a plea to issue directions to the Sub-divisional Police Officer, Margao, and PI Margao to take appropriate action for service of summons, filing service
report in time and attendance of the head constable during every hearing to brief witnesses and assist the special public prosecutors without fail.
"As the IO, the trial court is ultimately fixing the responsibility on me to ensure speedy trial by due service of summons and to keep police representative present in the court during every hearing to inform the progress about service of summons to the witnesses. However, for the last many hearings, the service of summons report has not been received on time by the trial court. So also the head constable, who has been directed to monitor this case, has failed to attend the court on different hearings," SP Gaonkar wrote to SP South Arvind Gawas.
SP Gaonkar's concern is understandable given that the trial court has been repeatedly issuing summons to him to remain present in the court during every hearing and ensure service of summons and presence of witnesses for speedy trial of the case.
The question that has baffled senior police officers as well as the special public prosecutors is why has the Margao police not appointed a designated police officer
or a head constable, who
will ensure coordination between police and the Special Public Prosecutor and ensure that summons are not only served on the witnesses, but file the summons service reports in the trial court on time.
The decision of the Margao police to appoint a head constable, who is working as a writer at the Margao police station, has not helped matters, since the head constable is normally preoccupied and overburdened with the police station work.
Interestingly, former Superintendent of Police South Vijai Singh, IPS, had issued directions way back on April 1, 2014, to then Colva PI Uttam Raut Desai and head constable Sameer Nagnuri of Margao Police station to assist IO Umesh Gaonkar to ensure the service of summons to the prosecution witnesses and brief the witnesses, with a further direction to remain present in the court at each hearing.
