The Margao Sessions Court will on Monday hear an application by lawyer Aires Rodrigues for impleading himself in the Goa government’s criminal revision petition against a search warrant issued by a judicial magistrate for the former Minister, Mickky Pacheco, at the official residence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi.
Hearing the revision petition on Wednesday, Sessions Judge P.V. Sawaikar stayed the search warrant issued by Margao Judicial Magistrate First Class Bosco Roberts.
Another twistIn yet another twist to the case, Mr. Rodrigues filed a complaint on Sunday at the city police station against Pacheco, his former assistant Lyndon Monteiro, Mr. Parrikar and the Chief Electrical Engineer, Goa, accusing them of pressuring junior engineer Kapil Natekar to compound the offences in a 2006 assault case, in which Pacheco was sentenced to six months in jail.
Mr. Rodrigues said he had a genuine reason to believe that Mr. Natekar was being mentally pressured and criminally intimidated.
Asking that all the four be booked for offences under Sections 506 and 511, read with Sections 34 and 120-B, of the Indian Penal Code, Mr. Rodrigues said he would be forced to move the court to prevent the misuse of the police.
He argued that an offence under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code, for which Pacheco was convicted, was not compoundable. Any compounding had to be done by the trial court, and not after nine long years when the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.
