Panaji: Fifteen years after an anti-narcotics cell constable was allegedly assaulted at Calangute, a Mapusa court has acquitted one of the accused in the attempt to murder case after witnesses changed their statements.
The court acquitted Marcelo Rodrigues alias Cookie. Two other accused, Sandeep Kumar Bhuniya from West Bengal and Janaya alias John Ellaya Fernandes from Hyderabad, are absconding.
According to the prosecution, the three accused wrongfully restrained constable Mahabaleshwar Sawant after midnight in May 2010 near a pub at Umtavaddo, Calangute.
They allegedly assaulted him with a wooden stick, causing grievous injuries to his forehead, and attempted to commit murder while he was discharging his lawful duty as a police constable.
The cop had allegedly gone to meet an informant on receiving specific information that drugs were being sold.
The court observed that Mahabaleshwar in his examination deposed in detail about the incident and the involvement of the accused and identified the hockey stick which the accused used to assault him. But, the court added, during cross-examination he went back on his earlier statements.
“The complainant did not support the case of the prosecution at all. He went to the extent of stating that he does not know any person by the name of Roshan when the fact is that Roshan was his friend and present at the time of the incident,” the court said. “He even stated that he had not met anyone by the name of Roshan on the day of the incident…”.
Additional sessions judge-2, North Goa, Mapusa, Ram S Prabhu Dessai, said, “The testimony of PW1 (Mahabaleshwar Sawant), more particularly the cross-examination, has totally destroyed the case of the prosecution.”
The court added that Roshan, an eyewitness present at the time of the assault, did not support the prosecution case and deposed that he was not aware of the incident and didn’t know Sawant. “Apart from the above, the prosecution did not examine any other witness to prove the charges…against the accused persons,” the court said.
While acquitting Rodrigues, the court said the entire material on record is insufficient to prove the accused, with their common intention, had wrongly restrained the constable, assaulted him with a stick, thereby causing grievous injuries, and attempted to murder him.
