Team Herald
PANJIM: The Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa has granted its consent for the appointment of retired High Court Judge for monitoring of investigations in the lawyer Gajanan Sawant assault case. The Court has also refrained from issuing any further directions in the matter.
The High Court while accepting the statement of Advocate General Devidas Pangam for appointment of retired judge Justice RMS Khandeparkar for monitoring the investigation of the case, also accepted that it is in the interest of fair and impartial investigations.
The Division Bench said, “Accordingly, as proposed, we accept the statement of the learned Advocate General that Hon’ble Justice Khandeparkar would be appointed to monitor the investigations in this matter. The State should issue necessary orders in this regard and make provisions for payment of suitable remuneration and other facilities to enable the Learned Judge to monitor the investigations.”
“Since the arrest issue is in the investigation domain, we are sure that even this aspect will be appropriately monitored depending on the materials collected during investigations,” the Division Bench said.
Therefore, apart from clarifying that the discretion vested in the Investigating Agencies under Section 41 of CrPC is not absolute or unfettered, we refrain from issuing any further directions in this matter for the present,” the Division Bench said.
The Advocate General assured the Court that investigations would be completed within the next two months and the disciplinary proceedings would be expedited and taken to its logical conclusion.
The Court while refraining from issuing any further orders in the matter ruling out the arrests of the accused persons in the brutal attack case, observed, “At least, prima facie, we do not agree with the learned Advocate General’s contention that no reasons are required to be recorded by the Investigating Officer for not arresting an accused suspected of committing an offence that carries imprisonment of over seven years though reasons must be recorded where the offence carries imprisonment for less than seven years.
“Recording reasons is required to promote transparency and fairness in the investigating process,” the Division Bench said.
It may be recalled that Adv Gajanan Sawant was brutally assaulted by four policemen attached to the Porvorim police station while performing his professional duties at Shantinagar, Porvorim on December 8. After several days of protests demanding arrests, suspension, inquiry and also demand of advocates associations of Goa for suo moto cognisance of the matter by the High Court, the matter was mentioned on December 14.
The matter has now been kept for consideration on February 6, 2023.
