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DOGS ATTACK GOANS, OWNERS GET ACQUITTED!By Dr Olav Albuquerque & Deborah Cordeiro
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DOGS ATTACK GOANS, OWNERS GET ACQUITTED!By Dr Olav Albuquerque & Deborah Cordeiro

LAW, Sept 12- Sept 18, 2026 September 11, 2026 , by

YET another acquittal by the Mapusa Court. This time of 68-year-old Shyam Govekar, in a case arising from an alleged Rottweiler attack on his neighbour at Badem-Assagao in January 2025, has put the spotlight on why there is such a high rate of acquittals in Goa – which, according to unverified sources, is five times higher than the national average. The law mandates that the owner of a Rottweiler seeks permission from the Mapusa civic authorities to keep it. Despite this, the junior prosecutor has miserably failed in his duty and his boss will justify the acquittal
Govekar was facing a charge under Section 291 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to negligent conduct with respect to a Rottweiler.
The case arose on January 29, 2025 when 40-year-old Vinil Salgaonkar was allegedly attacked by Govekar’s Rottweiler while he was walking home at around 10.15 pm.
According to the police, the dog was unleashed and bit Salgaonkar on his leg. He was subsequently taken to the Siolim Health Centre for treatment. After the incident, Salgaonkar’s brother Sunil lodged a complaint with the Anjuna police, alleging the dog’s owner had failed to ensure the dog would not pose a menace to the people.
The police later registered an offence against Govekar under Section 291 of the BNS. During the proceedings, the victim and complainant informed the court that the dispute had been amicably settled. The Complainant withdrew his allegations against the accused and did not support the prosecution case. So, it is easy for the Director of Prosecution to say this was an acquittal because the complainant may have allegedly been bought over by the complainant.
LIKE the acquittal of Tarun Tejpal by the trial court, which was overturned by the High Court of Bombay at Goa, this is another case where the prosecution has miserably failed to discharge its duty.
For the uninitiated, section 164 of the old Criminal Procedure Code enables the police to take the complainant to a magistrate where his statement is recorded so that he cannot backtrack if he is paid off. For sure, nobody wants to be convicted of a crime by a court which will result in the convict’s reputation forever being tarnished so that he will be shunned.

A Pattern of Missed Safeguards
UNDER The criminal justice framework, prosecutors are not mere passive observers of a witness’s testimony; they are the guardians of public interest.
 • The Hostile Witness Dilemma: When a victim or complainant decides to backtrack, APPs frequently concede the case without a fight. In Govekar’s case, the prosecution failed to utilize basic legal safeguards — such as recording statements before a magistrate early on — to legally bind the complainant to their initial story.
• Failure to Rely on Independent Evidence: A crime is an evil perpetrated against all Goemkars and not the victim. Even if a victim settles privately, the prosecutor can build a case using independent medical records (such as the reports from the Siolim Health Centre) and statements of the police and neighbours. However, the prosecutors in Goa rarely interact with the victim or evaluate him.

Systemic Triggers: Case Fatigue or Lack of Accountability?
 THIS trend is not isolated to minor public nuisance cases. Across various magistrate courts in Goa, trials of public significance frequently collapse due to prosecutorial omissions:

  1. Poor Pre-Trial Briefing: Witnesses often turn hostile in court simply because they are intimidated or confused. APPs rarely conduct thorough pre-trial briefings to prepare state witnesses for cross-examination. The prosecutors hardly interact with the complainant to evaluate his psychology, demeanour and anxiety to ensure a conviction. A prosecutor who is a gold medallist told these two writers: “It is not our job to call the complainant here. We put up the complainant and his witnesses before the court and leave it to the court to decide whether to convict or acquit. That is their job. Not ours.”
  2. Mechanical Trial Conduct: Objections are rarely raised against leading questions from the defense, and critical gaps in cross-examinations are routinely left unaddressed.
  3. Lack of Internal Review: Unlike higher judicial tiers where performance is audited, trial-court prosecutions suffer from a lack of accountability when a case falls apart due to basic procedural oversight.

The Path Forward
 TO bridge this gap, the Directorate of Prosecution must institute a strict performance review mechanism for APPs. If Goa is to shed its reputation for disproportionately high acquittal rates, prosecutors must treat every state case as a vital public duty, ensuring that justice is not compromised by a lack of professional diligence.
If the statement of the complainant was recorded under Section 164 of the old Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness could not have retracted his previous statement even if he was induced to retract by being offered money. He could have been prosecuted for perjury for lying under oath and wasting the time of the court if he had retracted.
This is why it is imperative for the Prosecutors’ performance to be regularly evaluated by submitting reports explaining why they lost a vital case. This will ensure accountability. The Director of Prosecution reports to the chief secretary, who rarely pulls up the head of his prosecution, as he works on the principle that it is better to let sleeping dogs die than open a Pandora’s box for the Goan public. This is because those who head the department may not want Goans to know that the prosecutors continuously complain they are overworked, while some of the fresh recruits are no match for the defence lawyers which guarantees an acquittal!

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