MONDAY, MAY 06, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday informed the High Court of Bombay at Goa on the photographs and videos of the violent attack on the Panjim Police Station in 2008.
CBI prosecutor Mahesh Amonkar, while appearing before the Single Bench of Justice Manish Pitale to present his arguments, said the investigation team has gathered all the relevant evidence such as bottles and stones which were brought to Panjim from Taleigao by the mob involved in the attack.
It was a planned attack, he told the Court, as the order on the appeal filed by the accused to quash criminal proceedings against them has been reserved.
Sitting MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, his wife – a minister in the Dr Pramod Sawant cabinet – Jennifer Monserrate, former Panjim Mayor Tony Rodrigues are among 36 persons accused in the crime.
“Several bottles and stones were gathered... Gunny bags with stones and plastic bottles were attached (during panchanama) from outside the police station… This shows there were preparations to attack (the PS) if their illegal demands were not met,” Amonkar said.
The prosecutor further said a policeman in civil clothes is one of the prime witnesses who has identified the main accused involved in the planned attack. “The policeman has pointed out to all these persons who were gathered at the bungalow (belonging to the Monserrate couple) and thereafter were present at the police station. They were also a part of the morcha that was an unlawful assembly,” he said, adding that witnesses have deposed before the investigating team confirming that Jennifer was beside her husband Babush during the violence. Similarly, Rodrigues too was present leading the mob along with the two politicians and others, he said.
CBI has attached photographs and videos of the entire episode which, Amonkar said, will be presented during the trial to the Special Court. “They can’t say we were spectators. All were leading the morcha and are political figures. There is prima facie evidence they were a party of the unlawful assembly,” Amonkar reiterated.
The accused named in the FIR have refuted that they were aware of any possibility of violence while admitting they were a part of the “peaceful protest”.
Rodrigues’ legal representative Adv Surendra Desai told the Court that he was at the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) when he was informed about the protest. He refuted that he walked till the police station with the people and claimed that being the Mayor; he was in front of the crowd. Desai also questioned why the former Mayor was booked for the offence when in fact he was looking to save himself from the violence, was injured and refused entry in the police station to protect himself from the attack. “There is nothing to say I was instrumental or arranged for stone pelting (at the Panjim PS),” the lawyer said. Rodrigues was present in the court during the arguments.
