PANJIM: The acquittal of Atish Naik, accused of murdering his wife Tanuja Naik in 2017, by the North Goa Sessions Court on Wednesday, has totally exposed the irresponsible manner in which heinous cases are being handled forensically and procedurally by the Goa Police.
The Judgement of the Additional Sessions Court has exposed how the ‘pillow’, which was the most important piece of evidence was misplaced resulting in acquittal of the accused in the matter.
In July, 2017 an FIR was registered by the Ponda police under section 302 of IPC for murder of Tanuja Naik. The accused, her husband Atish Naik aged 25 years had allegedly smothered her with a pillow which led to her death. During the initial investigation the police had established that accused Atish allegedly murdered Tanuja on suspicion of having extramarital affairs.
After testifying 37 witnesses, the Court acquitted the accused on Dec 6, 2023. However, the reasons that led to the acquittal are nothing less than absurd.
The Judgement says that Muddemal (case evidence material) nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 17, 18 and 19 were not forwarded to the Court. Out of these 11 muddemal MO 10 was the pillow that was the pillow that was used in the commission of crime, which can be called as the weapon used for the crime.
The Court also noted that the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) team that visited the crime scene did not collect the fingerprint samples on the pillows.
The Court observed, “It is a prosecution case that the accused murdered the deceased by smothering her with the pillow. The pillow was an important piece of evidence as it is a weapon of offence by which accused killed the deceased. Death by smothering with pillow would require pressing of the pillow. In the present case non-collection of the finger prints on the pillow is fatal to the prosecution.”
The Court ultimately acquitted the accused. This has exposed the manner in which the case was handled from the beginning. Sources from the police department have informed that non-collection of the fingerprint evidence and the Muddemal that was not submitted in the court has been missing from the custody of the police has left absolutely no chance of review.
An internal inquiry into the entire matter is expected to be held as to how this kind of an error happened, that has led to an acquittal of the accused in a case as serious as murder.
The importance of forensic data for investigation of a crime had resurfaced after similar lapses in the collection of data have been allegedly conducted by the Vasco Police in the New Vaddem vapour cloud explosion case. It's time the agencies learn a lesson from its past errors or else it will be extremely difficult to reinstate faith amongst the people in the policing system in Goa.