TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The sensational two-year-old custodial killing case of Cipriano Fernandes which has now receded to the inside pages, will be referred back to the Goa police for investigation, after the state government receives a formal refusal from Central Bureau of Investigation, Chief Secretary B Vijayan stated Tuesday.
The CBI has declined government’s request to investigate the death of Cipriano, whose body was laid to rest in November 2012, but there is no formal intimation on its decision to the government.
“We have read about CBI’s refusal to take over the probe, but we are yet to get a formal communication. Once we are officially informed, the state police (Special Investigation Team) will have to carry on with its investigation of this case,” Vijayan told Herald.
The state government, in November 2011, had told the High Court of Bombay at Goa that it will transfer the case to CBI and had also issued a notification in this regard.
The submission was made following a petition filed by a human rights activist alleged Goa police’s biased investigation into the case and that the three suspended policemen ~Inspector Sandesh Chodankar, police sub-inspector Radesh Ramnathkar and head constable Sandeep Shirvaikar – allegedly involved in the crime, were still free. A request letter was made to CBI office at Goa, that referred the file to its regional office in Mumbai.
The government then sent a follow-up letter requesting CBI to expedite its decision. With its refusal, the government will have no option but to refer back the investigation to SIT.
The question now arises whether the SIT, which was constituted by the former Home Minister Ravi Naik in the 2011 Legislative Assembly, is functional as officers – SP O P Kurtarkar, DySP Mohan Naik and PI Braz Menezes – appointed under the SIT were transferred soon thereafter.
Herald had exposed with documentary evidence the sensational casein which SIT was never constituted and home department had asked the then DGP to initiate action against the officers.
The 38-year-old NRI was allegedly tortured by the Panjim police and succumbed at the Goa Medical College on January 9, 2011 two days after he was detained for a ‘non-cognizable’ offence on January 7.
