Arguments to be heard in swords seizure case
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, APRIL 12
Nearly five months after the Margao police filed the charge sheet in the sensational Moti Dongor swords seizure case, the Judicial Magistrate First Class has posted the matter for arguments before framing of charge against the accused persons.
The Margao police had on October 26 last filed the charge sheet against eight persons, charging them under section 120-B of the IPC for criminal conspiracy, forgery and for promoting communal tensions between members of the society. The accused were also charged under the Arms Act.
The accused charged in the case includes Bashir Shaikh, Mohammed Mohiddin, Floyd Coutinho, Jagdish Singh, Irfan Kachi, Shaikh Aslam, Shaikh Jalil and Shaikh Maqbool.
Proceedings in the case were delayed for some time after the Margao police could not serve the summons on accused Jagdish Singh at his Margao address. A team of Margao police was even dispatched to Belgaum to ascertain his whereabouts. Sources in the court informed that the summons were finally served on the accused and the matter is now posted for arguments before framing of charge. The police had claimed that the swords, 17 in number, were found concealed in a bag in an abandoned truck parked atop the hillock Investigations into the case late revealed that the truck found parked at Moti Dongor was in the name of one Amin Shaikh, who later turned out a fictitious person.
It was following this information that the police later laid their hands on accused Bashir Shaik. It also came to light that the swords were brought into Goa by a dealer Jagdish Singh, who was also arrested in the case.
The case had hogged the limelight over the last one year and half after the government delayed in granting sanction for the Margao police to chargesheet the accused in the case, with the opposition training guns on Chief Minister Digambar Kamat since the main accused hails from his stronghold of Moti Dongor.
