Narvekar's order tomorrow morning

Sandesh Prabhudesai
25 April 2001  

After dictating the inconclusive order for almost two hours in a jam-packed court room, the high court will deliver the final judgement tomorrow morning regarding the anticipatory bail application of Dayanand Narvekar, president of the Goa Cricket Association and former deputy chief minister.

The hearing on the revision application of the anticipatory bail application of Narvekar as well as GCA secretary Vinod Phadke had begun before the single bench of the Mumbai high court here since 23 April.

The Margao police have sought arrest of both Narvekar and Phadke in the case of bogus ticket scam worth Rs one crore that rocked the state in connection with the final cricket ODI played between India and Australia at Margao on 6 April.

Their bail applications were rejected by the Margao district and sessions court on 21 April, while granting relief till 23 April later on in a separate order issued at the request of Narvekar's Mumbai-based counsel Satish Maneshinde.

Narvekar, who was personally present in the court room today for the second consecutive day, had however come prepared with a large group of supporters as well as an open car having posters 'Narvekar Zindabad' and one vehicle armed with a band.

One of the Narvekar supporters told this correspondent that the plan was to march to the chief minister's residence, shouting slogans, before leaving for his Tivim constituency.

Though final conclusive part of the judgement is yet to be pronounced by the court, Justice B H Marlapalle observed that certain charges made by the investigative agency did not warrant custodial interrogation.

These charges included the tender committee including Narvekar receiving consideration of Rs two lakh from the contractor, favours shown by the contractor towards unauthorised ticket agent like Eknath Naik (Narvekar's brother-in-law), tickets sold at a premium or black-marketing, printing of extra tickets and passes by the GCA as well as not giving entire lot of tickets to the contractor.

It relates to the mismanagement by the GCA, stated the judge, including the charge that the GCA had amended the constitution and its by-laws by vesting powers in the hands of the president alone and also giving him powers to nominate the office bearers of his choice. He also suggested that the GCA should set its house in order.

Stating that the Registrar of Societies should have taken steps in this regard, Justice Marlapalle observed that the governance had decayed nowadays. The supervisory agencies have forgotten to act unless they are motivated or threatened by executive action, the court orders or public outcry, he observed.

Justice Marlapalle is however yet to give his observations about the arguments made by Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni that Narvekar is not co-operating with the police but giving evasive replies and he should not be protected under the shield of political status he carries today.

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