PANAJI
It's headed for a dead end. The dual citizenship case against BJP MLA Glen Ticlo, Goa Vikas Party MLA Caetano 'Caitu' Silva, superintendent of police Jose Allen de Sa and police inspector Edwin Colaco is set for closure.
The Panaji police, which had been directed by the Judicial Magistrate First Class to register an FIR and probe the case, have filed a B-summary report.
“Based on the documentary evidence we have received from the accused and on our probe we have not found any evidence against the accused and have filed a report of the case as B-summary,” sources from the Panaji police have said.
Crucially, if it is a B-summary report, the police can register a case against the original complainant (in this case Kashinath Shetye), stating that he had complained to the police with malicious intent.
The Panaji Town Police had in October 2014 booked, besides the two senior police officials, 48 advocates and over 500 others for illegally having dual citizenship.
They were booked under Section 14 of Foreigners Act, Section 4&5 of Registration of Foreigners Act and Section 12 of Passport Act for holding citizenship of India and Portugal.
They are accused of having dual citizenship of India-Portugal to the effect that prior to February 4, 2013, all the accused acquired the citizenship of Portugal by obtaining the ‘Bilhete de Identidade’ without surrendering the citizenship of India.
The cases were filed by Kashinath Shetye, a right to information activist who in 2012 had pointed out the alleged acts of breach of national security and forgery. However, the police had not registered the case. The police had also not registered cases against the two MLAs as they had stays from High Court in their favour.
