Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday directed Crime Branch to complete its investigation in the death of social activist Bismarque Dias within eight weeks and file the final report.
Crime Branch, after recording fresh statements of witnesses in the case on November 2, had submitted the compliance report before the division bench of the High Court and said there was no clue of murder found in the course of investigation.
Earlier, the HC, while directing Crime Branch to register Bismarque’s death as a murder, had asked the branch to submit a compliance report every three months.
On April 11, 2017, the HC had asked Crime Branch to register an FIR in Dias death case based on the November 7, 2015 complaint filed by the family of the deceased.
Mario Dias, younger brother of Bismarque had filed a complaint at Old Goa Police Station alleging the death was a murder and not a drowning. However, Police had not registered the death as murder and later the case had been transferred to Crime Branch.
Crime Branch after a detailed inquiry had concluded that Bismarque’s death was due to drowning and a closure report was submitted to the SDM Tiswadi.
The Court, observing that when family members had filed a complaint alleging that it was a murder and the body was found in suspicious conditions, asked Police to register it as a murder and investigate.
It may be recalled that, Sudeep Dalvi, Kennedy Afonso and Samir Kelekar, all friends of Bismarque, had approached the HC with a petition to direct Crime Branch to register the death as a murder for further investigation. At the same time, after almost 45 days the family members had also filed a petition of a similar nature before same court and both were attached and heard together.
Bismarque a well known activist and anti-environment crusader went missing on November 5, 2015 under mysterious circumstances in St Estevam Island. His body was found two days later in a tributary of River Mandovi.
Bismarque’s body has still not been claimed by the family as it is demanding a thorough investigation after registering the case as a murder.
