Two Army officers surrender before Vasco court in 4-year-old boy's death
Panaji:
Two Indian Army officers, accused of ignoring the construction defects in the Naval Officers Residential Area, Dabolim, finally appeared before the criminal court in Vasco on Monday after several summonses went unserved.
The two army officers—one recently retired and settled in Goa—were named as co-accused in the death of a four-and-a-half-year-old boy who fell to his death from the sixth floor in April 2017. Both the accused were released on personal bonds of Rs 20,000 each, said Veerendra Mohan, special counsel for prosecution.
'Justice, though delayed, is not being denied as the two army officers have finally surrendered. They were the project manager and deputy project manager and, as such, were responsible for the execution of the projects without defect,' said Mohan.
'Defects such as not fixing the grill of a window resulted in the unfortunate death of the only son of a naval medico couple.'
The naval medico couple approached the high court of Bombay at Goa, seeking that the criminal proceedings be expedited. The HC, in writ petition 318 of 2018, directed that 'proceedings should be conducted with utmost dispatch and expedition'.
The special counsel said that though Goa police completed investigations and chargesheeted all the accused persons for the construction defects, the ministry of defence earlier declined prosecution sanction and instead proceeded under the Army Act, 1950. However, though the two army officers faced a general court martial trial in Panaji, the army could not try the two officers after they submitted pleas that the time limit statute under the Army Act was exceeded.
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