Birth certificate forgery case: 16 yrs on, court acquits ex-minister Narvekar & wife

Panaji: A Mapusa court acquitted ex-deputy chief minister and former Goa Cricket Association president Dayanand Narvekar and his wife Sushma of forgery and cheating in a 16-year-old case involving their son’s birth certificate.

It was alleged that they hatched a criminal conspiracy to benefit their son by showing he was born a year earlier, to enable him to play for under-15 cricket tournaments for three consecutive years.While acquitting the Narvekars, the judicial magistrate first class (A court Mapusa) Puja Sardessai held that no evidence was brought on record during the trial to substantiate the allegations and to show that they used the forged document as genuine.

The court stated that the testimony of the Prosecution witnesses as well as documentary evidence is completely silent as to when, where, how and to whom the accused used the alleged forged document."There is absolutely no evidence produced on record to show that any property, monetary gain or otherwise was delivered to the Accused as a consequence of the alleged use of the forged document. None of the witnesses examined by the Prosecution have stated that they have suffered any loss or that the accused have made any wrongful gain," the court stated.

“It seems that the entire investigation proceeded with tunnel vision and in a predetermined manner to pin the blame on Narvekars. The evidence on record aligns more with the Narvekar’s defence that Salkar filed a complaint against him only as a counterblast as he was expelled from the GCA by Narvekar. For all these reasons, I find that there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the forgery was committed by Narvekars.

On the contrary, the circumstances brought on record show that the Narvekar had absolutely no need or any reason to fabricate the live birth report,” the court said.According to the prosecution, after the boy’s birth on Feb 28, 1993, was registered with the Pilerne panchayat, Sushma in 1995 filed a false live birth report with the Mapusa municipality and got their son’s date of birth registered as Feb 28, 1992, in Form II.The prosecution alleged that the forged birth certificate was produced before Shiksha Niketan School to secure admission, and before the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) through the GCA to enable him to play for the U-15 tournaments for three consecutive years, at a time when Narvekar was the GCA president.The investigation commenced on a complaint by Shekar Salkar on Nov 7, 2010, and four investigating officers, who were then attached to Mapusa police station, investigated the matter.

The Narvekar couple contended that a false case was filed against them on account of jealousy, as their son was playing cricket brilliantly and his opponent wanted him out of the GCA.Salkar deposed that Narvekar misused his power as MLA and as the GCA president to get a false live birth report to show that the son was born on Feb 28, 1993, and it was submitted to the Pilerne panchayat in 1994.Salkar said that he misplaced all original documents and later said that he was not interested in pursuing the matter.