Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has overturned the conviction of three men sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly murdering Tyron Nazareth at the Calangute fish market in 2017, ruling that the prosecution failed to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
A division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Ashish Chavan on Wednesday set aside the May 30, 2023 judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, North Goa, which had found Joseph Brandon Sequeira, Ceon Bruno Fernandes, and Mahesh Rampal guilty of murder under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC. All three were lodged at Colvale Jail.
According to the prosecution, complainant Dipesh Naik, along with friends George Denzil Noronha and Tyron Nazareth, had been drinking at the Calangute fish market on the night of June 24, 2017. Around 11:30 pm, while the trio went to buy beer from a nearby bar, the accused allegedly approached Naik and Noronha on an Activa scooter, asking for Nazareth.
The two reportedly claimed they did not know his exact location. The accused allegedly later confronted Nazareth at the fish market and attacked him with weapons including a chopper, knife, and sword. Nazareth was found grievously injured and later died.
Police arrested Sequeira, Fernandes, and Rampal on June 27, 2017. The prosecution presented 19 witnesses during trial, relying mainly on eyewitness accounts, recovery of weapons and bloodstained clothes, and identification through a Test Identification Parade (TIP).
The High Court found several lapses in the prosecution’s case. It noted that the recovery of the alleged weapons and clothes was made from locations accessible to the public, undermining the reliability of this evidence.
The bench also highlighted the month-long delay in conducting the TIP after the accused were arrested, with no explanation provided for the postponement. The judges remarked that when identification is central to the prosecution’s case, the TIP must be conducted promptly to maintain evidentiary value.
The court further observed that the TIP did not comply with established procedural guidelines, including proper documentation of dummy arrangements, weakening the credibility of the identification exercise.
Given these shortcomings, the bench ruled that the prosecution had not proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and accordingly acquitted all three appellants.
