MARGAO
Will the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao take up the infamous Velim Church attack case for withdrawal when the matters comes up for hearing on March 30?
This question has come to the fore as the JMFC, Pooja Kavlekar, who was hearing the matter, stands transferred and promoted as Chief Judicial Magistrate, Panjim. Though it’s now a month since Judge Kavlekar was transferred to Panjim, the government is yet to fill up the vacancy.
In the absence of a full-fledged Judge, the government has given additional charge to III Additional Judge, Vijailaxmi Shivolkar, who is holding charge of two additional courts.
Both the public prosecutor and the accused in the Velim Church case appear keeping their fingers crossed, not knowing whether the III Additional Judge, Vijayalaxmi Shivolkar will take up the matter on March 30. Sources in the know said that the chances of the Court taking up the matter and disposing it is remote as the III Additional Judge has till date not taken up any matter previously handled by Judge Kavlekar. “Over the last one month since the charge of Judge Kavlekar’s court was given to the III Additional Judge, all the matters have been adjourned on a daily basis. This may be because the III Additional Judge is overburdened with the cases in her court”, sources in the know said.
It is learnt that Assistant Public Prosecutor Shilpa Nagvenkar has completed the process of seeking undertakings from all the 22 accused persons that they will not take legal recourse against the government after the withdrawal of the case.
