Law Com for special courts on foreigners' attacks
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 05 February 2010 15:55 IST
Goa State Law Commission has recommended strengthening of the state police force and setting up of special courts to look into the cases of attacks on foreigners.
The Commission today held a meeting with Goa State Women's Commission and the police authorities. The issue of attack on tourists was discussed at length.
All the members present at the meeting agreed that number of state police personnel needs to be increased for better security of tourists.
"We have also suggested special courts to handle the cases of attacks on foreigners. We will submit our report to the government shortly", Chairman of the Commission Ramakant Khalap told mediapersons.
Goa Police explained their limitations while performing their duty in such type of sensitive matters. They revealed that the present strength of police force is inadequate to tackle the law and order problem in the state.
Members of the Women's Commission too lauded their stand.
Yes, we need special courts...however a word of caution.....we need to ask why special courts only for crimes against foreigners?.......is this a move only to appease the foreign tourist in order to protect our economic interests?...if yes...then it's really sad...
We need special courts/fast track courts in order to speed up investigation and prosecution processes in ALL the cases involving crimes against those who are vulnerable to crime.....there has been a lot of media attention given to crimes against foreigners and yes, these crimes need to be condemned...but why is the media silent when we fail to apprehend criminals, who commit crimes against the poor and vulnerable sections who do not have access to the media and do not have any consulate or embassy to speak for them??
A case in point...recently there was a small news item that informed us that the children's court had acquitted a person, who had committed sexual assault on a minor inside a school premises about 3 years ago.....this did'nt make front page news....there will be no candle light protests or won't be considered of a debate on any news channel.......unfortunately...all we seem to have are endless, unanswered questions....I do hope that we don't fall to a selective interpretation of what justice is and for whom it should matter!
The Goa State Law Commission will do a great service to the common man if it reviews all the pending cases in various Courts in Goa and for how much period! The common man always feels that justice delayed is justice denied!
Thousands of cases pending in various Courts for decades in a way makes the common man believe that the law is being used as a tool to cause harassment and throw the matter pending for generations! It also makes the common man take the law in their own hands as can be seen from the increasing number of incidents where the people take the law in their own hands without waiting for the law to take its own course! And may be the Maoists and Naxalites are also born because of similar reasons!