HC slams Quepem cops for poor probe

HC slams Quepem cops for poor probe
Preetu Nair, TNN

PANAJI: Eighteen months after she was allegedly murdered, officers of Quepem police station who are investigating the death of Iralina Noronha, a
61-year-old cancer and diabetes patient from Avedem, Quepem, have been asked to be present in the high court of Bombay at Goa to explain the delay in registering the offence.

The court is hearing the bail application moved by Conceisao Noronha, 64, who was arrested for allegedly setting his wife on fire.

While Iralina died on July 19, 2007, of burn injuries, the court observed that the Quepem police failed to register an offence for almost 40 days, despite her dying statement before the Quepem sub-divisional magistrate that she suspected some person in the house of setting her on fire. “While I was sleeping, I felt hit and I woke up. I realized that I had caught fire,” Iralina had told the SDM.

A case of murder was however registered only on August 29, 2007 and Conceisao was arrested by the crime branch on December 29, 2008.

While hearing the accused’s bail application on Friday, the court wanted to know why there was a delay in registering the FIR and adjourning the matter till Monday told the public prosecutor to ask the investigating officers from Quepem to be present in the court to explain the same.

The records of this case reveal that it was transferred to the crime branch by the DGP on October 17, 2007. Before this, the case was registered as murder only after Iralina’s brother, in a 10-page letter to then SP (South) on August 23, 2007, asked that a “proper and speedy investigation into the murder of my only sister” be conducted and the criminals be brought to justice as per the law.

The SP then instructed the Quepem PI who registered the case as murder. On the same day, the investigation was handed over to the Quepem SDPO with a note that “the family (has) alleged foul play in the death of the woman”. This delay, despite Iralina’s dying declaration where she had also said “while sleeping I never use divo (kerosene lamp) but always keep a torch with me”.

However, during investigations, Conceisao told the police that he was sleeping in another room when at about 12.30 am on July 14 he heard his wife screaming and so he got up and rushed to her room where he saw that his wife had sustained burn injuries.
1 Feb 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition