MARGAO
In an interesting development in the formalin in fish case, city-based lawyer Adv Rajiv Gomes on Monday prayed to the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao, to add FDA official Iva Fernandes as a respondent and drop FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai and other agencies from the case.
Even as Adv Gomes filed his application before JMFC Shilpa Pandit on Monday, FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai appeared before the court with senior legal counsel G D Kirtani and sought time to argue in the case.
In his argument, Adv Gomes contended that the presence of FDA official Iva Fernandes in the case is important given that her report on the formalin row was made public recently. He pointed out that adding Iva as a respondent and bringing her report on record will help the court take appropriate decision on his application to direct the police to lodge FIRs against all those involved in the controversy. The court has now fixed hearing on the application made by Adv Gomes to October 17.
Adv Gomes later told the media that he has prayed for the inclusion of FDA official Iva Fernandes as a respondent since her report was made public recently. “I am certain that the court will be able to assess my prayer for an FIR in the case once Iva is made a respondent in the case since she was the office who had carried out the raid in the wholesale fish market in July last,” Adv Gomes told the media.
Interestingly, FDA director, Jyoti Sardesai, who had for the last two hearings sought time to file her reply saying the government had not yet provided her with a pleader, made her presence felt in the court.
