Team Herald
PANJIM: After the Anjuna Police goof-up, now the utter failure on the part of the Porvorim Police to communicate the grounds and reasons of arrest by writing in the language understood by the three accused and their relatives under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), prompted the Goa Children’s Court, Panjim, to grant bail to the notorious trio, involved in a recent case of dacoity at Pilerne.
This is the second such release within a week as earlier another major goof-up by the Anjuna Police led to bail being granted to a rape accused by the POCSO Court, within a week of his arrest without any surety.
There are guidelines from the Supreme Court that under BNSS, the accused and his family have to be intimated about the arrest in a language that is known to them and failure to do so results in bail.
The police are in a dilemma that most of the notorious criminals are from other States and to deliver notices to them in their native languages is a problem.
On March 20, the Porvorim Police arrested Subhash Kumar, Dhiraj Gupta and Ibran Shah, residing at Colvale for committing dacoity of gold ornaments worth Rs 15 lakh approximately at Pilerne. During investigations, the police recovered part of the stolen property comprising Rs 87,900 in cash. However, the prime accused, also wanted in a murder case, is absconding.
After being remanded in judicial custody, the trio approached the Goa Children’s Court after the police added Section 8 (2) of the Goa Children’s Act.
The counsel for the accused Adv Vinayak Porob informed the Court that the police failed to comply with Sections 45 and 48 of BNSS during the trio’s arrest, which was illegal. Further, the relatives of the accused were not intimated on their arrest in the language known to them. On this ground the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Mapusa, had refused to grant police custody to the accused, he told the court.
The investigating officer (IO) produced the copy of the intimation and memo of grounds of arrest given to the relatives of the accused.
The IO said he had complied with all the arrest formalities and that there was no breach of constitutional mandate.
The police told the court that under Section 187 of BNSS, the investigating officer can avail 14 days police custody at any time during the first 60 days and prayed for the custodial interrogation of the accused to cover the stolen property.
But the Goa Children’s Court president Judge Saee Prabhudessai observed that the arrest was not communicated to the father of one of the accused and there was no endorsement that the same was explained to his dad in the language known to him.
The court found that the IO had not produced any intimation of arrest given to the relatives or any other person in respect of the accused. Therefore, the arrest was itself illegal and directed their release forthwith.
It may be recalled that on April 4, the Anjuna Police had arrested 36-year-old Deryl Francise Fernandes of Umta Vaddo, Calangute for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl and had failed to intimate his family members about his arrest.