NT Reporter
Panaji
The District and Sessions Court at Merces has acquitted six accused persons in connection with the December 2017 Moira attempt-to-murder case, citing lack of evidence. Joaquim D’Costa of Moira, Suryesh alias Babu Arolkar of Mapusa, Ashvek Valavalkar of Parra, Vinay Gadekar of Guirim, Sunny Mithapara of Khorlim-Mapusa and Vijay Karbotkar of Britona were acquitted.
The prosecution said on December 18, 2017, at a bar and restaurant in Moira, the accused, owing to previous enmity, assaulted the complainant Sandesh Naik and his friends Ravi Naik and Mahadev alias Sunny Morajkar with a sword, knife, baseball sticks and liquor bottles. The assault allegedly caused injuries to the complainant, serious injuries to Morajkar and amounted to an attempt to murder Ravi.
Additional Sessions Judge Artikumari N Naik said that Nila Mohanan, then District Magistrate of North Goa, testified that she had no occasion to see the weapon—a sword found in the possession of accused— for which she passed the
sanction order.
Mohanan had testified that the request to accord sanction under section 39 of the Arms Act came from SP North, Porvorim. She said she was satisfied that it was a fit case to accord sanction to prosecute all the accused persons as they were found guilty of committing an offence without possessing an arms licence.
The court said that Mohanan had neither seen the weapon nor verified its length. The judge further said that Mohanan testified that the weapon had not been produced before her and that the documents submitted by the investigating officer stated that the accused had violated the Arms Act by possessing and using a sword.
The court said that the weapons did not fall within the purview of firearms, as their dimensions had not been proved.
