MARGAO
Nearly three years after Agostinho and Maria Fernandes lodged their complaint with the Margao Municipal Council in 2015 saying one Renuka Tahsildar has fraudulently got her named entered in the Municipal birth records as Reeta Fernandes, the said birth registration stands finally cancelled.
The ordeal of these residents of Benaulim, however, is not over yet. Both Agostinho and Maria will now have to do the rounds of the High Court as the Margao Municipal LDC Shekar Gaonkar, who was arrested by the Margao police in connection with the case, has cited the duo as respondents in the matter before the High Court.
The LDC has moved the High Court to quash the FIR registered against him by the Margao Police on a host of grounds, but both Agostinho and Maria wonder what’s their role in the High Court as the State had registered a case against the MMC employee.
Former Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho, who has taken up cudgels for the residents, said the duo will have to make rounds in the High Court and engage a lawyer at their cost when the Margao Municipality and the State were the prosecutors in the case. “This is unfair to these complainants from Benaulim. The High Court has sent them notices to appear in the court. I want to know why the Municipality had failed to lodge a complaint in the case,” Coutinho demanded to know.
Inquiries by The Goan has further revealed that though its now three years since the Margao police had registered the FIR against the MMC LDC, the Margao police has till date not filed the chargesheet in the court of law.
When The Goan tried to find out from the Margao police the delay in chargesheeting the case in the court, a police official in the know attributed the delay to the arrival of the forensic reports from Hyderabad.
In his writ petition praying to the High Court to quash the FIR, the MMC LDC said the FIR is bad in law as the birth certificate in question as issued in pursuance to directions issued by the JMFC by order dated November 17, 2015, adding that the FIR is absolutely baseless, frivolous and is an abuse of process of law.
He has further submitted that the FIR cannot be sustained because the complaint, on basis of which the FIR, was filed does not even indicate by any semblance that he is connected with the issuance of the allegedly forged certificate.
The LDC further submitted that the Margao police has not filed the final report despite lapse of substantial period of time and hence has approached the court for appropriate reliefs.
