Public prosecutors, cops review acquittals in South

Public prosecutors, cops review acquittals in South
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, FEB 23   
This may nor may not in any way connected to the acquittal of alleged serial killer Mahanand Naik in the murder cases.
But, certainly, public prosecutors and senior police officers from South Goa had an interaction on Wednesday to review the number of criminal cases ending in acquittals in the district in recent times.
Public Prosecutors Sarojini Sardinha, Asha Arsekar and Bhanudas Gaonkar were huddled with the district police chief Allan De Sa, DySPs, including Margao Sub-Divisional Police Officers and the incharge of police stations from the district.
“There was nothing new in the interaction. In fact, we the received instructions to have such a meeting every month”, informed DySP Umesh Gaonkar.
He said the meeting discussed on the various aspects of cases ending in acquittals and the need to plug the loopholes, if any.
Replying to a question, DySP Gaonkar said these meetings will provide an opportunity to the prosecution as well as the investigating officer to do a postmortem on the acquittals and the flaws that led to the acquittal. 
“The exercise will help in making corrections via the postmortem of the criminal cases”, he said, adding that the two sides will discuss specific criminal cases which have ended in acquittals.
Sources in the know said there has been an increase in the number of acquittals in criminal cases in recent times, with the government suggesting close coordination interactions between the investigating officers and the prosecutors to arrest the disturbing trend.