Court to monitor probe against tourism minister

PANAJI: Taking cognizance of "slow" investigation against tourism minister Dilip Parulekar and others in the alleged case of grabbing of a prime plot of Serula comunidade, judicial magistrate first class (JMFC), Mapusa, Apurva Nagvenkar directed the crime branch to submit a status report of the investigation every 15 days till the filing of a police report.
While passing the order on a application made by social activist Aires Rodrigues, the judge observed"it appears that for the last six months no proper investigation has been conducted and therefore the JMFC court has powers to direct a proper investigation and to monitor the investigation".
Rodrigues pointed out that Porvorim police had failed to investigate the case for the last six months after registering the FIR in January 2014 following the court directive against Parulekar, Peter Martins, then attorney of the comunidade of Serula and Irene Sequeira, then administrator of the comunidades of Bardez.
During the hearing of the case, the Porvorim police informed the court that investigation was handed over to the crime branch in April 2014. While pointing out that the matter was sub-judice before the high court following the filing of a public interest litigation writ petition, the Porvorim police said that the statement of Martins was recorded and some relevant documents and letter were collected.
The judge noted "The said order in the writ petition was passed in February 2014 i.e. almost more than five months back and during this period the respondent no.1 has only recorded statement of accused which is otherwise not admissible in law." The judge stated that there was no reason for the Porvorim police inspector to slow down the investigation as the subject matter was not sub-judice.
Referring to the reply of the crime branch, that is now probing the matter, the court remarked that from the date of registering a FIR on January 17, 2014, no much progress has been made in the investigation and no proper justification has come forth for the slow progress in the investigation.
The court also directed the police inspector at the CID crime branch to submit a status report of investigation regarding the offence registered by Porvorim police station.