JUSTICE BRITTO TO DECIDE ON FATE OF GOVT’S PETITION AGAINST AIRES ON NOV 22nd

PANJIM: Bombay High Court at Goa’s Justice N.A. Britto will on 22nd Nov decide the fate of Crime Branch Police Inspector Sunita Sawant’s petition challenging the acquittal of Adv. Aires Rodrigues in the 2004 Ribandar Church case.

On 15th November Bombay High Court at Goa’s Justice N.A. Britto had directed that fresh notice be issued to Adv. Aires Rodrigues with his correct name. The High Court registry however did not issue the notice as the Special Public Prosecutor Mahesh Amonkar failed to pay the required postage fees of Rs 32 to send the notice to Old Goa Police Station to be served on Adv. Rodrigues.

Justice Britto can now give the government another opportunity to pay the postage charges of Rs 32 or dismiss the petition.

Every hearing of the case is costing the government Rs 7000/- by way of fees being paid to the two Special Public Prosecutors appointed by the Government to handle the case against Adv. Rodrigues.

The High Court registry initially declined to register Sunita Sawant’s petition as it was not filed through a Public Prosecutor as required. Sunita Sawant filed the petition herself as High Court Public Prosecutor Carlos Ferreira declined to appear against Adv. Rodrigues citing personal reasons. The government then appointed Adv. Mahesh Amonkar and Mrs. Milena Pinto as the two special Public Prosecutors for the case. As Inspector Sunita Sawant had in her petition not given Aires’s correct name, Adv. Aires Rodrigues declined to accept the High notice sent to him as it was not addressed to ‘Aires Rodrigues’ but ‘Aries Rodrigues’. At the last hearing Justice Britto allowed the Special Public Prosecutor to correct the name and directed that fresh notice to Adv. Rodrigues be issued. But as the postage charges not paid by the Special Public Prosecutor no notice to Adv. Rodrigues has been issued.

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.