The main legal point established in the judgment is that the court has the power to sift and weigh the evidence for the limited purpose of finding out whether or not a prima facie case against the accused has been made out. The court found that there was sufficient prima facie material on record to frame charges against the accused persons for the stated offences.

JUDGMENT

Manish Pitale, J. - These revision applications are filed by 29 out of 37 accused persons charge-sheeted in respect of an incident that took place on 19.02.2008 at Panaji, in Goa. The accused no. 1 atanasio Monserrate is a Member of the Legislative assembly of Goa, the accused no.2 is Jennifer Monserrate, now a Minister in the Government, accused no. 3 is Tony Rodrigues, the then Mayor of the Corporation of City of Panaji and other accused persons. The said accused no. 1 has not filed any revision application against the order impugned in these revision applications.

2. By the impugned order dated 12.09.2014, the Special Court for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Goa heard the accused persons before charge and held that, prima facie, sufficient evidence was available to frame charges against the accused persons for offences under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 153, 324, 325, 326, 332, 333, 427 & 435 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property act, 1984, (for short, act of 1984).

3. according to the applicants, not even a prima facie case is made out against them as regards the said offences. These applications were admitted to be heard together. While admitting the applications, by an order dated 04.12.2014, this Court granted stay of further proceedings in Sessions Case no. 4 of 2014, qua the applicants, until the final disposal of the applications.

4. according to the State (through CBI), the brief facts leading to registration of offences in the present case are that, on 19.02.2008, at about 7.30 p.m., the accused no.1, his wife-accused no.2 and accused no.3 i.e. the then Mayor of the Corporation City of Panaji, along with other accused persons gathered near the house of the accused no.1 at Taleigao and thereafter proceeded with a morcha to reach the Police Station at Panaji, where they sat on a dharna. They shouted slogans against the Police and demanded the suspension of one Mr. Sudesh Rohidas Naik, Police Inspector, at the said Police Station. The grievance of the accused no.1 and the other accused persons was that the Police had failed to take any action on a complaint filed by one Ryan Godinho against certain persons for having violently attacked and wrongly confined him. The said accused persons claimed that instead of acting on the complaint filed by the said Ryan Godinho, the Police had sided with the persons who had attacked him and, therefore, the suspension of the said Police Inspector was necessary. The number of persons in the dharna outside the Police Station increased and at about 9.00 p.m., the accused no.1 addressed the morcha, giving the Police half an hour to suspend the said Police Inspector, failing which, he threatened that the persons in the morcha would enter the Police Station and teach a lesson to the Police.

5. It is alleged that some other accused persons also gave inflammatory speeches to attack the Police. The appeals of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and the Sub-Divisional Police Officer to the accused no.1 and the aforesaid other accused persons to maintain peace, were ignored and the accused persons repeatedly called the members of the morcha to attack them, due to which the entire mob became restless and aggressive. at this stage, the aforesaid Officers requested the accused no. 1 to come to the office of the Police Inspector at Panaji Police Station for discussion with the Police and other officials, but he declined the said request.

6. at about 9.30 p.m., the crowd pushed the Police personnel who had cordoned the Police Station and attacked them with stones, broken bottles, and other such materials. They also attacked the public property of the Panaji Police Station, including doors and glass windows by pelting stones. a motorcycle was set on fire and other vehicles were also damaged. The Police personnel had to intervene at this stage and, in the process, as many as 41 Police personnel sustained injuries, 25 out of whom had to be shifte