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AMIT SHAH JUBILANT OVER ACQUITTAL OF PRAGYA THAKUR!By Dr Olav Albuquerque
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AMIT SHAH JUBILANT OVER ACQUITTAL OF PRAGYA THAKUR!By Dr Olav Albuquerque

Aug 02-Aug 08, 2025, LAW August 1, 2025 , by

HOME Minister Amit Shah crowed jubilantly: “Hindus can never be terrorists!” Soon after the Mumbai sessions court acquitted all seven accused, including the BJP firebrand MP Pragya Thakur in the Malegaon bomb blasts case, which comes in the wake of several acquittals. The judge declared that the prosecution failed to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the seven had planned and executed the bomb blast at Malegaon outside a mosque.
 Naturally, this will give a shot in the arm for Pragya Thakur, who has always been a firebrand Hindutva sadhvi who espouses the cause of the saffron brigade. She alleged she was tortured while in jail and not given basic amenities that were due to her as a woman.
A TV channel, which is famous for its line — “The nation wants to know” — demanded to know whether Rahul Gandhi would apologize? Some of the TV news channel also mentioned Digvijay Singh for using the word “saffron terror” while marketing his book.
The point here is that in Goa too there was a bomb blast at Madgaon in 2009. It was alleged that the Sanatan Sanstha, a Hindu organization was involved. Two Sanstha members were killed when the Goa Police alleged a bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in Margao. This incident brought the Sanstha to the attention of law enforcement and civil society.
Before this, the group had been named in connection with other blasts, including one in Malegaon. Interestingly, at a recent annual general meeting of the Goa Union of Journalists, a journalist who was earlier attached to the “Sanatan Prabhat,” a periodical supposed to be run by the Sanatan Sanstha, claimed his life was ruined just because he was called for questioning by the Goa Police investigating the bomb blast in 2009.
Former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, who is a senior advocate designated by the Rajasthan high court, had said the two words “secular’ and “socialist” in the preamble of the Constitution were a slur to Sanatan Dharma which is the Hindu way of life. He has warned the judiciary against overstepping its “Laxman rekha” — because of formulating the basic structure doctrine and other alleged overreach. One of the reasons for his exit was reported to be because he accepted the Opposition MPs notice for impeaching the allegedly corrupt judge, Yashwant Varma. This aroused the ire of the BJP MPs in the Rajya Sabha.

COMMUNIDADE LANDS
 BUT leaving all this aside, the amendment to the Goa Land Revenue Code, to regularise illegal structures on communidade land and government land, will encourage thousands more illegal constructions which will change the topography of Goa.
Through this bill the government has allowed the administrator of the communidades to decide on the application to regularize illegal constructions— bypassing the communidades — to regularise the illegal structures on the respective communidade land, not exceeding an area of 300 square metres.
Initially, the government wanted to issue an ordinance, but decided to introduce two bills in the monsoon session. In 2012, the BJP government tried to regularize illegal houses that were built up to the year 2000 on communidade properties in Goa, but it did not see the light of day as no communidade gave any no-objection certificates (NOCs) to applicants.
By amending the Goa Regularization of Unauthorized Construction Act, 2016 to facilitate the regularization of illegal constructions up to 1,000 square meters in urban areas and 600 square meters in panchayat areas, the government has in fact encouraged law breakers to construct illegal houses.
While presenting the budget for 2025-26, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had also proposed a policy to grant land ownership rights to Goans who lack legal land titles. He had announced a policy to provide land ownership rights to those who are farmers and have been cultivating the land for farming but do not have ownership rights to the land, he stated.

RS136.41 CRORE TO TACKLE LAND ILLEGALITIES
 THE budget has allocated Rs136.41 crore to the Revenue Department for implementing these measures, it amounts to diverting funds to help those who put up illegal constructions in government land and even on private land. It takes decades for civil courts to pass a final decree on illegal constructions which have mushroomed thoughout Goa. By passing such bad laws, the government is resorting to populist measures to appease builders and other elements, including migrants from other states.
MY experience of being harassed by one Bhagwant Naik and the clerk in the village panchayat of Salvador do Mundo, whom I accused of fabricating an entry in the inward register to show that one Mahadev Shirdokar had sought permission from the village panchayat of Salvador do Mundo, to regularize his illegal house in my ancestral plot of land bearing Survey Number 407/14, has still not been decided by the deputy director of panchayats. This case has been dragging for 14 years.
In criminal cases, the assistant public prosecutor (APPs) has to represent the State, but some of these APPs neither summon the complainant nor do they know the facts of the crime thoroughly. One APP told this writer, “We send the witnesses directly to the court to depose without preparing them in advance. And we leave it to the court to decide whether to acquit or convict.” Naturally, when the APP does not prepare the witness before a trial, the witness will fumble and the court will acquit the accused.
I have complained against an APP in Margao who was promoted to public prosecutor despite destroying my criminal case. It was a case concerning the fabrication of a bogus sale deed, and later fabrication of an allegedly bogus affidavit on blank stamp paper of Rs50, which the court accepted as bona fide without seeing the original which is still in the possession of the accused.
The Goa government has enacted laws which will benefit law breakers rather than those who respect the law. Regularizing illegal structures will ensure more such illegal structures sprout up in future.

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