Panaji: While acquitting former Goa Cricket Association President Dayanand Narvekar and eight others in the infamous ODI ticket scam, Goa Court has ordered that the state government was acting inefficient to harass the accused, who are facing trial for last 21 years.
On July 08, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao, Santan Silva acquitted nine accused including former GCA President Narvekar in connection with fake tickets for ODI match between India-Australia ODI at Margao town in the year 2001.
In a detailed order, made available online on Wednesday, the Court noted “this is a 21 year old matter. Enough is enough. Despite being an old matter (which was being taken up on priority basis), the Court has gone out of its way to give the State a long rope.”
The Judge observed that after so many months, the State has not even bothered to appoint the new Special Public Prosecutor. “Since the officials of the State are apparently in slumber, in my view, the least the State could have done was to instruct any of its many Public Prosecutors and/or at least the Assistant Public Prosecutor appearing before this Court and make available the case papers to any one of them,” the Judge observed.
The court observed that the State is clearly not acting. “The State is displaying its complete inefficiency since March 10, 2022 – i.e. the day when Special Public Prosecutor, Vinay Borkar wrote to the Under Secretary (Establishment), Government of Goa, giving notice of his withdrawal of appearance,” the order reads.
The Judge observed “the inefficiency has been such that the Court is now wondering whether all this is being deliberately done to harass the Accused – who are already facing trial for an extraordinary 21 long years.”
The court has also made mention about the negligence of investigating officer, Police Inspector Margao Sachin Narvenkar. “The PI is well aware that this matter is more than two decades old and was being taken up on priority. The IO has retired long ago. Therefore it was the responsibility of the PI to serve the witnesses.”
The Judge said that on each occasion, the Court was specifically directing that the summons to the witnesses be served through the PI and In- Charge of the Margao Town Police Station.
“Despite repeated and specific directions to the said PI to ensure service and ensure that the service report reaches on time to the Court, not only the witnesses were not served but the service report would also never reach the Court on time,” the Judge observed.
