Former State health minister Vishwajeet Rane has been summoned to court by Panaji Judicial Magistrate First Class Vaishali Lotlikar on February 1 to face trial in the 2007 case of threat to kill activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues.
A Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit had on January 10 directed that the charge sheet filed in 2009 against Mr. Rane be revived.
The summons for the Congress MLA come barely three weeks ahead of the Assembly polls which he is contesting from Valpoi in north Goa. He is also the son of former Chief Minister and one of the most senior Congress leaders Pratapsingh Rane who is contesting from Poriem constituency in north Goa.
Allowing the Special Leave Petition filed by Mr. Rodrigues, the Supreme Court set aside the July 21, 2010 order of a Division bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa, which had quashed the charge sheet against Mr. Rane while holding that an offence under Section 506 (threat to kill) of Indian Penal Code was non-cognisable.
Mr. Rodrigues in his petition before the Supreme Court had challenged that decision of the High Court which had held that the Goa government had no powers to issue a notification making Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code cognisable.
When the Old Goa Police charge sheeted Vishwajeet Rane under Section 506, the State Government suddenly took a stand that the section is non-cognisable. A controversial proposal was hurriedly moved on June 30, 2009 by then Advocate General of Goa Subodh Kantak to instruct all Public Prosecutors to withdraw all cases filed by the police under Section 506 of IPC as the section was non-cognisable.
