The South Goa Sessions Court on Monday discharged all the accused, barring contractor Vishwas Desai, in the Canacona Ruby building collapse case, that had killed 31 labourers at Canacona on January 4, 2014.
MARGAO
Sessions Judge B P Deshpande pronounced his order in the open court on Monday, bringing a sigh of relief for the government officials, including three engineers and as many former Chief Officers, a town planner and draughtsman, besides the two builders, who were charged by the police for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, cheating, criminal conspiracy, besides offenses under the provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Town and Country Planning Act.
The Court, however, framed charges against the contractor Vishwas Desai under section 304-A for negligence, 336, 337 and 338 of the IPC and has directed the accused to appear before the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Canacona on December 5 to answer the charge. The Court, however, has discharged the contractor for the offenses of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, cheating and conspiracy, besides offenses under section 7 and 13 91) (a)
and 9d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as under section 17-A of the
Town and Country Planning Act.
In his order, Judge Deshpande observed that material on record clearly shows that no case is made out for framing of charge against accused Prakash Bandokar, Prashant Shirodkar, Dipak Desai, Pradeep Naik, Ajay Desai, Ramesh Naik, Ashank Gaonkar, Suhas Faldesai, Pardip Singh Birring (builder) and Jugdeep Sehgal (builder). "These accused persons are entitled to be discharged on the ground that there is no sufficient material brought on record to frame charge against them for the offenses material in the chargesheet", the Judge observed.
On the offense of conspiracy slapped against the accused persons, Judge Deshpande pointed out that no material has been brought on record to even faintly suggest that there was an exchange of money or gratification by way of offer/demand showing any involvement of accused No 3.
The charge of conspiracy under section 120-B of the IPC also fell flat in the absence of any material on record to show that before the collapse of building or before obtaining necessary permissions for construction of the building, a conspiracy was hatched between the accused contractor, the builders and the government officials.
With regards to corruption charges levelled against the accused under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Judge observed that though the prosecution had seized all necessary documents, computers, hard disks as well as bank accounts of the builders, no iota of evidence is brought on record to show by way of book entries that some illegal transaction took place between the builders and the government officials or their relatives in the form of money or otherwise so as to show that there was some illegal gratification offered by the builders/owners for the purpose of obtaining sanction form government officials.
The Judge further observed that the two builders Pardip Singh Birring and Jugdeep Sehgal cannot be charged for causing death by negligence under section 304-A of the IPC as nothing has been brought on record to show that any act, overt or otherwise, was performed by the owners, which is coming within the category of rashness or negligence, which caused death of any person and amounting to culpable homicide.
