Court alters charge against Hike n Fly owner in Keri paragliding deaths case

Panaji: A local court discharged Shekhar Raizada, the owner of Hike n Fly company, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 105 of BNS and altered the charge to causing death by a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide under Section 106(1) of BNS, in connection with the death of two people during a paragliding activity at Keri in Jan last year.

The court directed Raizada, a resident of Paliem and a native of Lucknow, to appear before the JMFC Pernem on Feb 16.


The prosecution’s case is that Raizada, without obtaining permission from the authorities, knowingly allowed his paraglider pilot to conduct paragliding activities for tourists without providing any safety equipment, and with the knowledge that this would endanger human life. This resulted in the death of tourist Shiwani Dable of Maharashtra and paragliding pilot Suman Nepali from Nepal.

Advocate Michael Nazareth, representing the accused, said there was no iota of evidence to attract Section 105 of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is severe, and added that there was no prima facie evidence of deliberately committing the act. Public prosecutor Coleman Rodrigues said there was an evidence on record to frame a charge against the accused for a rash and negligent act.

“I duly considered the arguments canvassed by both, and in my considered opinion, the charge deserved to be altered, and there could not be a complete discharge of the accused in the matter. The main reason is that even the reply/written synopsis of the prosecution is clear that they conceded that there was no evidence to show that there was any foul play based on the record, and that it is the case of a sheer rash and negligent act on the part of the company to operate paragliding activity without any mandatory licence from the department of tourism,” held additional sessions judge (fast track court-1), Tiswadi, Artikumari Naik.