Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has dismissed an appeal filed by the State government against a man, charged for making casteist abuses. Ajit Bakal was booked for allegedly threatening and assaulting a victim with fists and blows in June 2018.
The Bench of Justice Manish Pitale was hearing a Revision Petition filed by State challenging discharge order of Bakal by Special Court, Panjim, for offences registered against him under the Indian Penal Code and the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 on the complaint by Rama Kankonkar.
As per the prosecution, statements of two alleged eyewitnesses also described the incident in identical terms and there was reference only to assault on the victim based on which relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code was slapped against Bakal.
During the hearing, Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira and Adv Sujay Kamulkar, both of whom appeared for Bakal brought to the notice of the court that two days after the incident, the victim submitted a detailed typewritten complaint before the police describing the very same incident and, for the first time, a reference was made about the use of abusive language based on caste, indicating that offences under the Act of 1989 had been committed.
The counsels further said that more than a month of the alleged incident, the victim in a supplementary statement spoke about the alleged abusive language on the basis of caste used by Bakal. The detailed typewritten complaint, the applicant claimed was after consulting an advocate.
The High Court, while discharging the revision petition, agreed that the finding of the Special Judge ‘that entire allegations pertaining to the Act of 1989 appeared to be an afterthought and an attempt to frame the respondent for offences under the said Act’.
