Court acquits military driver in ’19 accident case

Panaji: A Merces court acquitted Tulshidas Gaunkar in a 2019 death-by-negligence case involving a pedestrian who was allegedly hit by his military truck near the ferry point in Panaji while he was driving from the KTC bus stand to the market. The court granted him the benefit of doubt after stating that the prosecution failed to establish the identity of the accident victim.The court observed that the prosecution conducted a “defective investigation”, failed to prove the point of impact, and also relied on a panchanama that could not be treated as reliable evidence for the case.The court also added that the prosecution failed to clearly establish the identity of the accident victim. Initial reports identified the man as ‘Srinivasan’, but he was later identified as ‘Muttappa’ by Ravi Kumar Mudagalu, who claimed to be his son but did not produce any documents to support the claim. The court also noted that the investigating officer made no effort to verify this discrepancy, which weakened the prosecution’s case.Because of the major inconsistency in the case and lack of evidence, the court held that the offence under Section 304-A IPC was not established.The eyewitness admitted that he did not witness the accident.