PANAJI: Minister for Panchayats Mauvin Godinho failed to appear before the North Goa Principal District and Sessions Judge Irshad Agha to stand trial in the more than a decade old power scam case leading to the judge postponing the case to June 15.
When Godinho’s lawyer informed the Court that the accused could not be present today due to personal difficulty, Judge Agha directed that Mauvin Godinho remain present in Court without fail at the next hearing.
Meanwhile, Adv. Aires Rodrigues on Thursday filed an intervention application seeking to assist the Prosecution with Judge Agha fixing for June 15th arguments on the application. Rodrigues told the court that in public interest he was constrained to intervene as the accused Mauvin Godinho is a very powerful and well-connected politician currently being the Panchayat Minister and may try to deviously in collusion with the government attempt to derail the due process of law.
On 17th January this year while disposing Mauvin Godinho’s petition which was pending before the Supreme Court for over a decade, a bench comprising of Justice N V Ramana and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer while upholding the High Court order directing framing of charge declined to give any relief to the former Power Minister Mauvin Godinho in the Special Leave Petition which he had filed in 2007.
Mauvin Godinho had challenged the order passed by the Bombay High Court directing framing of charges against him in the multi-crore power scam case. By an order dated October 26, 2007, then Bombay High Court at Goa Justice Nelson Britto had directed framing of charges against Mauvin Godinho under Section 13(1) (d) (i) and (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.
Justice Nelson Britto had in his order also noted that the charges against Mauvin Godinho came to be investigated and charge sheet filed based on a complaint filed by Manohar Parrikar and that it appeared that the case took different turns depending upon which government was in power in Goa.
