Almost three years after the incident, Goa Police on Tuesday filed chargesheet against 51 Nigerians and a Ghana national for violence along the National Highway (NH-17) at Porvorim in north Goa for causing damage to property and assaulting police personnel. The chargesheet was filed before a Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court.
The chargesheet has been filed with as many as 15 charges including attempt to murder, rioting as well as assaulting or obstructing public servant and blocking the national highway (NH-17). The incident had taken place on October 31, 2013.
Of the 52 accused, four Nigerian nationals are currently in the judicial custody in various drug cases, while 36 are under the police radar, and eight have gone underground.
The violence broke out when demonstrators felt that the police in coastal belt of north Goa were not taking the alleged murder of Obodo Uzoma Simeon (a Nigerian national) by a local gang at Parra on the previous night, seriously.
The mob had stopped the hearse van carrying the body of Simeon at Porvorim along the NH-17. Policemen were assaulted, vehicles were damaged and the body of Simeon was pulled out of the hearse van and kept on the NH-17, disrupting traffic for over three hours.
The then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had to himself rush to the scene to guide police to diffuse the situation as these violent protests enraged locals and situation could have gone out of control.
