PANAJI
Nigerian and Russian nationals dominate the list of foreigners booked for crime in Goa over the last three-and-half years, official information provided by the government in the Goa legislative assembly reveals.
There were as many as 210 cases booked in these three and half years in which 261 foreigners were charged with crime in the last three-and-half years These cases also iinvolved serious crime like murder, rape and drug trade.
There were also cases of robbery, assault and gambling, besides several accidents in the list.
Drug trafficking accounted for most of these crimes in which Nigerians figure most commonly as perpetrators. There were 83 cases booked against foreigners in all under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1986.
All this information is contained in a written reply furnished to the Goa legislative assembly by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who also holds the home portfolio.
In 2020, 66 cases were booked involving foreigners. The number dropped to 40 the following year (2021) and again steeply rose to 71 last year, Sawant said in the written information he furnished.
From January to June this year, 33 crimes involving foreigners were registered.
Incidentally, as many as 51 of these cases involved violation of visa rules and other laws governing foreigners in the country. There were also 11 cases of accidental deaths and other accidents in the list and 14 were cases of fraud.
There were also three cases of rape by foreigners in the list, including a gang-rape.
Over these three-and-a-half years, the courts convicted and sentenced foreigners in 36 of the 210 cases and granted acquittal in four cases.
Also police filed their final reports for closure in seven cases and in one case it was closed following the death of the foreigner and eight accused were acquitted.
Investigations in 16 cases by the police are currently in progress and 137 cases are lying in the courts at various stages of the prosecution process.
Meanwhile, Nigerians are the biggest number to be implicated in crimes among all other countries with 66 of them facing the law. They are closely followed by Russians (35) and Nepalese (24).
Bangladesh and Uganda had 16 of their nationals facing prosecution in these crimes and seven nationals each were from Bulgaria and Tanzania.
Britain, Ukraine, France, Germany, Portugal, Kenya, Ghana, Afghanistan and Australia, Pakistan, America, Mexico, Austria, Belarus and Canada also had their nationals named as accused in these crimes.
