HC DIRECTS FRESH NOTICE TO AIRES IN SUNITA SAWANT’S PETITION

PANJIM: Bombay High Court at Goa Justice Mr.N.A.Britto today directed that fresh notice be issued to Adv. Aires Rodrigues with his correct name in the petition filed by Crime Branch Police Inspector Sunita Sawant’s challenging the acquittal of Adv. Rodrigues in the 2004 Ribandar Church case.

Adv. Rodrigues had declined to accept the earlier notice sent to him by the High Court as it was addressed to ‘Aries Rodrigues’ and not ‘Aires Rodrigues’. Justice Britto today allowed Adv. Mr. Mahesh Amonkar who has been appointed as Special Public Prosecutor to handle the case to correct the name of Adv. Rodrigues which was wrongly spelt in the petition filed by Inspector Sunita Sawant.

Justice Britto today also cautioned the Special Public Prosecutor to ensure that Adv. Rodrigues’s name and his father’s name too was correctly spelt in the fresh notice and adjourned the matter to Nov 22nd.

Inspector 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.