MAPUSA: Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Tuesday slammed the Mapuss Police for registering FIR against Samuel Garvyn de Braganza who died by suicide in Mapusa following a video of him dumping garbage in the open being made viral, for possession of an illegal weapon was an act of “additional malice” by the Goa Police.
“I told the SP that in criminal jurisprudence you don’t file an FIR against a dead person. It is not possible. What is the purpose of an FIR? It is to register an offence, it is to investigate the crime and to punish the accused by prosecution. If the accused is dead in the beginning, there is no question of an FIR. If an accused dies midway, it abates, it does not remain. How do you register an FIR against him? I could have understood if they had said the FIR was for the illegal possession of an FIR by unknown persons,” Adv Carlos said.
“This is quite a serious matter. Either it exhibits complete lack of knowledge of criminal law, or deliberate malicious attempt to tarnish the name of Samuel to make him as if he was really a bad criminal,” he added.
“To name him as accused after he died, shows additional malice, which shows that the malice which was there on day one of registration of first FIR, and you are trying to cover up your sins now and have put this second FIR for illegal possession of firearms,” he said.
He pointed out how, in the first case, no FIR could have been registered against Samuel since there was no material to justify an FIR under section 271 of the BNS.
“In the video, you don’t see anybody throwing anything. You don’t specifically see Samuel throwing anything. Therefore the video is only a conversation. It is true that Samuel admits after this heated discussion that he threw garbage. But nothing is mentioned what garbage. If it is not mentioned what garbage, the question is what is the basis or the material for the police to register an FIR to say that section 271 BNS will be applicable. Because, you have to know, if it is not for that section it would not have been a cognizable offence, there would have been no FIR registered and it would just be a fine,” he said.
“The registration of the FIR is malicious because once you have a cognizible offence with a non cognizable offence then it is treated as cognizable. To register it as an FIR they added this section,” he said.
“In life as well as in death, people love to live with honour and respect. It is not that a person when he dies, he goes as a criminal because an FIR was registered against him. He must have an honourable name. An inquiry needs to made into this also besides what he has been investigating,” he also said.
