October 17, 2025

Panaji’s courtroom drama took a sharp twist as the Bombay High Court pointed out a “gross error” and “leniency” by the trial court in the fiery 2009 Siridao gang war case. What happened? Zenito Cardozo was charged with murder under IPC Section 302 in the chargesheet. But shockingly, the trial court didn’t go full-throttle on murder. Instead, it slapped charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (IPC 304) on Cardozo and his gang, leading to their conviction in 2016. The High Court wasn’t impressed one bit. Justice Bharati Dangre called the trial court’s approach “highly erroneous,” saying it should have charged Cardozo with murder because two people died in the mayhem. She said, “The whole approach of the trial judge is highly inappropriate. But since at this stage, the gross error that has been committed is not possible to be rectified...” The court also pointed out that Zenito’s three-year jail term was actually quite lenient. What triggered this brutal clash back in 2009? Two rival gangs flew into a rage, attacking each other with glass bottles and knives. The violence left Santosh Kalel from the Mirand gang dead on the spot, while Johnny Fernandes died later during treatment. The HC didn’t spare the rival gang members either. It upheld convictions of Prasad Kubal and Sachin Padgaonkar—who tried to murder Cardozo—while calling the trial court’s leniency in just charging them with grievous hurt a mistake. The court said, “Zenito was mercilessly assaulted... the injuries caused are not by way of right of private defence as these particular appellants have not sustained a single injury.” Veteran lawyers were in the mix too. Senior advocate S D Lotlikar and his team represented Zenito Cardozo, while advocates Rohan Desai, Arya Parrikar and Ashwini Bandekar stood for Kubal and Padgaonkar. The state was represented by additional public prosecutor Pravin Faldessai. In short, the Bombay HC has spoken loud and clear: when lives are lost in brutal gang fights, courts shouldn’t play soft. Justice demands full truth and full consequences!

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Tags: Bombay high court, Siridao gang war, Zenito cardozo, Murder charge, Trial court leniency, 2016 conviction,