JUSTICE BRITTO PRE-PONES HEARING OF PETITION AGAINST AIRES TO 30TH NOV

PANJIM: Bombay High Court at Goa’s Justice N.A. Britto today pre-poned to Nov 30th hearing of the petition filed by Crime Branch Police Inspector Sunita Sawant challenging the acquittal of Adv. Aires Rodrigues in the 2004 Ribandar Church case. Justice Britto had yesterday fixed the matter for 6th December.

Adv. Rodrigues today appeared before Justice Britto and requested that the hearing of the petition against him be expedited.

Adv. Rodrigues drew Justice Britto’s attention that the Special Public Prosecutor. Mahesh Amonkar had been intentionally delaying in paying the process fees due to which there has been delay in the issuance of notice by the High Court registry.

Adv. Rodrigues also submitted to Justice Britto that Adv. Mahesh Amonkar was officially not authorized by any government order to appear in this petition against him. Justice Britto today allowed Adv. Rodrigues to collect from the registry a copy of the notice and Inspector Sunita Sawant’s petition.

Every hearing of the petition filed against Adv. Rodrigues is costing the State Rs 7000 by way of fees being paid to the two Special Public Prosecutors handling the case against Adv. Rodrigues.

It has been Adv. Rodrigues’s contention that the revision petition filed by Crime Branch Police Inspector Mrs. Sunita Sawant against him was not maintainable firstly because the law does not permit a second revision and that Inspector Sunita Sawant herself could not have filed a revision as it had to be filed by the State through its Public Prosecutor.

Adv. Rodrigues has also contented that on merits too, Inspector Sunita Sawant’s petition would not survive as the contents of Fr. Newton Rodrigues’s complaint was also part of Adjuda Convent Superior Celia Fernandes’s complaint in which he was acquitted after a five year long trial.

While acquitting him on 9th April last year in the first charge sheet the Panaji Judicial Magistrate First Class Mrs. Sharmila Patil had stated in her judgment that the allegations against him seem to have been manipulated and that he was falsely implicated in the case. The Court had also held that the possibility of the complaint been lodged due to political interference could not be ruled out.

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 second charge sheet filed in 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.