2 FIRs in same case invalid, HC relief for murder accused

PANAJI: In an unusual case of registering two FIRs for the same offence, the high court of Bombay at Goa recently set aside life sentences handed out to two murder accused by a trial court. The high court also held that in both cases, the prosecution failed to prove the case.
Four accused persons, Ravindra Jha, Srinivas Gauram, Mohammad Ali and Bijoy Kolta had filed the appeal against the lifer meted out by a trial court.
The FIR was registered in a case of abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person and destruction of evidence, and murder of Sudan Dabhale, at Cansaulim on July 17, 2009.

Two of the accused, Ali and Gauram, were also sentenced to life imprisonment by the North Goa sessions court for the abduction of Dabhale for ransom in connection with another FIR in the same case. Thus, the two of them challenged the jail term.
A high court bench comprising justices M S Sonak and Prithviraj K Chavan slammed the police.
“Such registration of two separate FIRs in respect of the same incidents or in respect of two or more parts of the same incidents has, undoubtedly, caused prejudice to the accused persons,” the court said.
The court also noted that both FIRs refer to the kidnapping of Aiyaz in a Maruti Omni acquired by the accused persons after murdering Dabhale and changing the plates of the van. The court thus said that there was no justification for the prosecution to register the second FIR and on that basis launch a separate prosecution against the accused.
The prosecution stated that the accused hired a Maruti Van from Dabhale from Mapusa bus stand on July 17 under the pretext of transporting household goods from Birlanagar to Mapusa. They then took Dabhale and his van to Cansaulim to an isolated spot. There, they murdered him, robbed his possessions and the van, and dumped the body.
The prosecution then alleged that the accused persons then used the van for abducting one Aiyaz and replaced the number plate with a fake one.