Panaji: If properly investigated this case has a potential to attract elections in several of the wards of panchayats and also can put in trouble jobs of several government servants. But Vasco and Panaji police are sitting over the complaint without even registering First Information Reports.
The fact of the case is that the certificates which are issued to confirm that a person belongs to Christian Render, Christian Mahar and Christian Kharvi are taken from
Association of Christian Backward Classes. One Mr Andrew D’Cunha has been signing the certificates in the capacity as the Secretary of the association.
The document procured under Right to Information from Office of the District Registrar has certified that “the said society has not renewed its registration certificate till date and therefore it becomes unregistered society under section 3 (B) of the Society Registration (Goa Second Amendment Act, 1998).”
The reply to RTI was given on September 18, 2017, four months after the panchayat elections were held in which the certificate from the Association of Christian Backward Classes were used to prove their cast and contest in Reserved Wards.
As per the government norms, the cast certificate which is issued by Deputy Collector to the candidates banks entirely on the samaj certificate issued by the bodies like Association of Christian Backward Classes.
Armed with this information, the RTI activists including Inacio Pereira and Mukundraj Mudras has digged into the records of Deputy Collector office which has revealed that several people who has contested in panchayat election have provided the certificate of Association of Christian Backward Classes, which according to the reply by government is unregistered.
The first police complaint was filed with Vasco police against Mr Andrew D’Cunha under sections 465, 467, 468, 420, 125 (A), 171 (G), 166, 167, 204, 217, 218 and 120 (B) and 34 of Indian Penal code dealing with forgery, cheating and impersonation on March 13, 2018.
Pereira who lodged the complaint told Goanewshub that Police Inspector Nolasco Raposo delayed the investigation and never took up any probe in the case. “We went three times to meet Raposo but he gave cold shoulder,” he said.
On March 17, 2018, the same case was lodged with Deputy Superintendent of Police Sunita Sawant who suggested us to go to Crime Branch, Pereira said.
On April 02, 2018, the complaint was lodged with Crime Branch which was transferred to Panaji police station. Police Inspector Rajan Nigalye informed the complainant that the complaint was transferred to Panaji police station on April 07.
Pereira says that neither of the police stations have filed FIR in this case, while they are just bouncing the complaint amongst each other.
This case if properly investigated can result in disqualification of several panch members as their cast certificate itself will be proved as invalid. Pereira said that proper investigation will also result in stoppage of such illegalities through unregistered organizations.
