Panaji: In an embarrassment for Goa police, a number of court orders have recently exposed investigating officers taking a casual approach to test identification parades to identify accused persons in rape and murder cases, resulting in acquittals.Advocates and retired senior police officers said that investigation by Goa police officers fail to meet the standards that justice demands. Advocate Arun Bras De Sa said that although a test identification parade is not a substantive piece of evidence, it’s an important aid for investigators, more so when an accused is not named or in children’s court matters, where the survivor does not know the name of the accused but addresses him as chacha/uncle.“I have observed that in many cases, the identification parade is not conducted at all or sometimes too late,” said De Sa.Another advocate, Swapnil Nasnodkar, said that a criminal investigation is not measured by the number of arrests made, but by the quality of evidence collected. He said that the duty of the investigating agency extends beyond identifying a suspect; it requires gathering legally-admissible, reliable, and corroborative evidence capable of withstanding judicial scrutiny.“A test identification parade is often a vital investigative tool when the identity of the accused is in question. Ignoring such a crucial step can break an essential evidentiary link, create reasonable doubt, and weaken the prosecution’s case. Many acquittals are not the result of innocence being established, but of investigations failing to meet the standards that justice demands,” said Nasnodkar.Former SP Bossuet Silva said that there is no sincerity in conducting investigations, and that this has led to acquittals in many cases. Silva said that even executive magistrates and magistrates shy away from conducting identification parades as they then have to be among the witnesses during the trial.“Police officers do not conduct investigations in a proper manner. Most investigating officers copy and paste from previous records and file chargesheets,” he said, adding that some investigating officers rely on their subordinates to complete the investigation, and they just sign the final reports.The Bombay high court on Tuesday acquitted a 28-year-old man from a northeastern state of the alleged rape of a 63-year-old businesswoman and resort owner in Goa. The court held that conviction can’t be based on the voice of the accused identified by the survivor. Castigating the prosecution, the court noted that there is no conclusive DNA evidence linking the accused to the semen detected in vaginal smears.In another case, contrary to the established framework of holding a test identification parade to prove the evidence against the accused, Goa police asserted that there was no point in holding the parade if photos of the accused are shown to witnesses.In connection with the murder of Vasco resident Gayatri Marathe, police showed photos of the accused to witnesses, but the court observed that identification by showing photographs is not valid. The murder case could not stand at the time of framing of charges in court.
