PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa direction to Crime Branch to register an offence based on the complaint filed by social activist Bismarque Dias’ family in his death comes as a victory to the family, but what led them to file the PIL was poor quality of the investigation and autopsy.
The High Court on Tuesday disposed two petitions, one filed by Bismarque’s friends and another by his family members. The court said the Police are not justified in refusing to register an FIR as on perusal of the complaint filed by family members, it prima facie discloses the commission of a cognizable offence.
“The fact remains that ultimately a conclusive solution to the manner in which the deceased had died has not been explained by any pointed and reliable evidence,” the court observed.
The petitioners pointed out that Bismarque was an activist and had taken up different issues in the state and that there were two complaints at Old Goa Police Station prior to his death concerning threats to his life from particular persons.
The petitioners also pointed out to contradictions in various versions of the persons who had met Bismarque prior to his disappearance, and the people who had last seen him on the fateful day.
The petitioners also contended that Old Goa Police, that had initially handled the primary inquiry in the death case, had lost three precious hours in securing evidence. “No spot panchanama was made of the crime scene. Police did not bother to find out where the body was floating in the river, there is gross negligence displayed by Police and material procedural irregularities on their part in investigation as to the cause of death,” the petitioners said.
Despite the circumstances raising reasonable suspicion that some person has committed an offence the procedure under section 174(1) of CrPc was not followed, the petition stated.
The petition also stated that the initial findings do not match with the findings of the inquest panchanama. As the post mortem report has not taken on record the findings of the inquest panchanama, the petitioners made a strong contention stating negligence of the doctors at Forensic Department of GMC.
The petitioners were aggrieved with decision of SDM Tiswadi with its order to close the inquiry following closure report by Crime Branch and hence pleaded before the court to quash the order of SDM and direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or Special Investigation Team or Crime Branch to register a FIR to conduct an investigation in a death case.
The petitioners also submitted in court the videos recorded prior to Bismarque’s death naming people who would be responsible if anything happened to him in the future.
Despite two complaints by Bismarque prior to his death, the complaint by his younger brother Mario Dias suspecting foul play after the death, video confession and unwillingness of Police to register FIR, the petitioners had landed in HC and forced to intervene to direct the investigating agency to register the case.
