PANJIM: Assagao kidnap accused Pooja Sharma’s advocate finally confirmed in Court that her husband is a diplomat with the Ministry of External Affairs.
Does that explain the reluctance of the Goa Police in arresting her in a case of kidnapping and allegedly being a part of the think tank that allegedly carried out the part demolition of the home of the compliant and then kidnapped her husband and son for over six hours before dumping them from their car somewhere in Anjuna?
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During the hearing of her bail application in the High Court which was granted.
Sharma’s counsel senior Adv Surendra Dessai told the Court that the applicant being the wife of a diplomat was required to deposit passport with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and whenever she intends to travel abroad along with her husband and family members or individually, she had to collect the passport from the MEA.
The High Court Judge Justice B P Deshpande allowed the applicant to file an affidavit before the investigating officer stating that her passport was with the MEA and that she will not travel abroad without permission of the Court.
On furnishing an affidavit, the investigating agency shall verify and inform the MEA that the passport of the applicant shall not be released to her till further orders of the Court.
The Court ordered that in case of her arrest, she be released on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one solvent surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the investigating officer.
She has been asked to go the police station at 10 am on Monday, July 22, and “to cooperate with the investigating agency and to attend the police station thereafter as and when called.”
The applicant has also been asked not to in any manner try to influence the witnesses or to interfere with the investigating agency and to hand over her passport to the investigating officer on July 22, and not to leave the country without prior permission of the Sessions Court, Panjim.
Stating that Sharma was not present in Goa at the time of the alleged incident (June 22, 2024), senior advocate Desai said that Arshad Khwaja had already made a statement before Magistrate under Section 164 CrPC, clearly admitting that he committed such offence and that the applicant had no role to play in such offence. Also, Agarwadekar and his wife (complainant), subsequently filed an application stating that they want to withdraw their complaint. But only because of the political pressure, the investigating agency is unnecessarily trying to arrest Sharma.
Additional government advocate Pravin Faldessai told the Court that Sharma purchased the property worth Rs two crore with full knowledge that there exists a structure wherein Pradeep Agarwadekar and his family were residing. By pointing to Sharma’s complaint filed in March 2024, Adv Faldessai submitted that the applicant knew that the structure was occupied by Agarwadekar and his family and thus, the intention was to evict the family by unlawful means.
Adv Faldessai further told the Court that Sharma being owner of the property including structure, was the only person who could have hatched the conspiracy to evict Agarwadekar family from the said property.
