Bombay HC dismisses pleas to quash proceedings in Panaji police station attack case, directs to expedite trial

PANAJI, (ANI): The Bombay High Court at Goa, on Wednesday dismissed applications seeking quashing of the proceedings in the 2008 Panaji Police Station attack case and directed that the trial be expedited.

Goa’s Panaji MLA Babush Monserrate and Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate are the main accused in the case which has been pending in the Bombay High Court for the last seven years.

Justice Manish Pitale today also rejected the request made on behalf of Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate to continue the stay of trial for four weeks to enable her to move the Supreme Court.

Justice Pitale while rejecting the request observed that the Supreme Court had directed that the criminal trials against MPs and MLAs have to be expedited.

In a petition to the Administrative Judge of the High Court on November 9, it was pointed out by Advocate Aires Rodrigues that the SC being concerned about the criminalization of politics had directed that the criminal cases against politicians should be fast-tracked.

However, it had not happened in Goa, at least in the Panaji Police Station attack case in which Babush Monserrate and his wife Jennifer stand charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for attacking and damaging the Panaji Police Station on February 19, 2008.

Advocate Rodrigues also stated that the very questionable stay of the criminal trial granted by the High Court on December 4, 2014, that has continued for seven long years was contrary to a Supreme Court order that any stay granted by the High Court expires in six months and that unless an extension is granted, the trial must go ahead. Rodrigues had also sent a copy of his petition to the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

Meanwhile, Advocate Aires Rodrigues has on Wednesday stated that he would move an application before the Additional Sessions Judge Mapusa Sherin Paul seeking to assist the prosecution to ensure that the trial is free and fair without any manipulation in view of the fact that the main accused Babush and Jennifer Monserrate are politically influential and very well connected.

Recalling when Minister Dayanand Narvekar was charge-sheeted, the BJP had sought to sack him from the cabinet, Rodrigues stated that the BJP should now “Walk its Talk” and drop Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate and also remove Babush Monserrate as Chairman of Greater Panaji and Development Authority and as Director of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited. (ANI)