PANJIM: In yet another twist to the 2004 Ribandar Church case saga, Adv. Aires Rodrigues today declined to accept the High Court notice issued to him in connection with the petition filed by Crime Branch Police Inspector Sunita Sawant challenging his acquittal in the case.
Bombay High Court Judge Nelson Britto had directed that notice be issued to Adv. Aires Rodrigues and the same was sent to the Old Goa Police to be served on Adv. Rodrigues.
When the Old Goa Police today tried to serve the notice on Adv. Aires Rodrigues at his Ribandar residence, Adv. Rodrigues declined to accept the notice as he was not the Respondent named in the notice.
Adv. Rodrigues told the police that he was unable to accept a notice which was not on his name. He told the police that his name was ‘Aires Rodrigues’ while the High Court notice was addressed to ‘Aries Rodrigues’
Adv. Rodrigues told the police that if the notice was for him they would have to get the name corrected or look for ‘Aries Rodrigues’ they may be looking for.
The Old Goa Police today sent the notice unserved back to the High Court registry. The Court registry will now have to place the matter before the High Court for further orders.
The High Court may direct Police Inspector Sunita Sawant to give the correct name and then get it rectified by a fresh notice. This will take at least two more hearings which means it will cost the tax payer at least another Rs 14,000 by way of fees of the two Special Public Prosecutors appointed by the Goa Government to prosecute Adv. Aires Rodrigues in the High Court petition filed by Inspector Sunita Sawant.
Sunita Sawant’s petition follows the dismissal of the earlier revision petition filed by the Government against Adv. Aires Rodrigues. It was dismissed by the Sessions Judge Mrs. Vijaya Pol on 4th June this year while upholding Panaji Chief Judicial Magistrate Mr.P.M.Shinde’s order discharging Adv. Rodrigues from the 2004 Ribandar Church case. Judge Pol in her judgment had stated that Adv. Rodrigues was rightly discharged. Earlier Panaji Chief Judicial Magistrate Mr. P.M.Shinde had on 22nd December last year directed that further proceedings be stopped against Adv. Rodrigues in the charge sheet filed against him in connection with the 2004 Ribandar Church incident.
Along with Adv. Aires Rodrigues, 14 other Ribandar residents have been charge sheeted in the case including an 80 year old widow who is now bedridden. The charge sheet had been filed in connection with an incident that allegedly took place in 2004 at the Ribandar Church premises when Adv. Aires Rodrigues was leading an agitation demanding action against the then Ribandar Parish priest Fr. Newton Rodrigues for having allegedly molested a 13 year old girl from Ribandar.
Any connection between Narvekar's Sunita and this one?
ReplyDeleteThe news report is slightly wrong. Adv. Aires Rodrigues did NOT 'decline to accept High Court notice issued to him'; but declined to accept High Court notice issued to "Aries Rodrigues".
ReplyDeleteNeed to be alert in Court matters.
Anonymous the VIII... Mr. Aires is an expert in these Court matters. If it was one of us, we would have signed blindly and accepted without checking the spelling of the name. This Sunita Sawant should be reprimanded by the court for providing false information. She thinks she is a cat playing with a mouse, but in the end the game changed and she is the mouse now.
ReplyDeleteRight you are Annoymous VIII.
ReplyDeleteAdv.Aires Rodrigues's reading glasses alerted him on the name which he believed may have been Sunita Sawant's ex. Aries Rodrigues.