MARGAO
Six years after the sensational Velim Church attack case hit the headlines on the eve of the 2012 Assembly election, the case drags on in the courts, with the prosecution facing a mammoth task of examining as many as 95 witnesses, including close to 47-50 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, and the government showing no inclination to withdraw from the prosecution.
On December 15, 2017, the Court of Judicial Magistrate had framed charges against 22 accused persons, which marked the commencement of the trial in the case. Information suggests that the prosecution has examined only a lone witness, PI Suraj Harlarnakar till date. Two prosecution witnesses (both panch witnesses), who were summoned by the court, have played truant, leaving the Judicial Magistrate with no option but to adjourn the hearing.
Both the prosecution and the defense in private say it may take a long time for curtains to come down in the trial of the infamous case. Sources in the know say that issuing summons to the CISF personnel, cited as witnesses, may turn out to be a tedious job for the court, since they hail
from the states of Uttarakhand and Bihar.
“We have seen in the 2001 fake ticket case how difficult it was to get outstation witnesses come and depose in court. The witnesses were either not found in their home states or have shifted their residence. In the Velim case, more than half the witnesses are para-military personnel, who were deputed for
election duty in the 2012 election,” remarked a defense lawyer, who said it would be very difficult to get the CISF personnel depose as witnesses in the case given their nature of postings.
The coalition government too has not showed any inclination to get the case withdrawn, though credit goes to the ruling dispensation to get the prosecution withdraw the appeal filed in the South Goa Sessions court challenging the dropping of attempt to murder offence against the accused.
It is not out of place to mention here that when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar took over the reigns of office after the 2012 Assembly election, he had spoken on the floor of the House in favour of withdrawal of the Velim Church case. Though the government headed by Laxmikant Parsekar had moved the court for withdrawal of the case, the attempt was nullified after it came under opposition from the three policemen, PI Kapik Nayak and constables Krishnanand Rane and Kuldip Desai.
In November 2016, the case underwent another twist after the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao, dropped the attempt to murder offense slapped against the 22 accused on grounds that medical evidence did not support invocation of section 307 of the IPC.
The return of Manohar Parrikar as Chief Minister saw the government intervening in the case after TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai questioned the rationale of the previous government to challenge the JMFC’s order dropping the attempt to murder section when the very same government had earlier moved the court to withdraw the entire case.
Says a defense lawyer: “It’s now easy for the government to withdraw the Velim church attack case for the simple reason that the offenses under which the accused are tried are not so serious compared to the attempt to murder charge, which now stands dropped. Moreover, more than half the number of witnesses are para-military personnel and getting them in the court would be a tedious job”.
All the 22 accused, including the two Priests, Fr Romano Gonsalves and Fr Lucio Dias, are being tried for the offenses under Sections 143, 144, 147, 148, 186, 323, 324, 332, 341, 342 and 353 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code.
