VASCO: Goencho Avaaz on Thursday filed another complaint against Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and others for repeatedly defying Section 144 of CrPC and other sections at the inauguration of the new ferryboat in Panjim on Wednesday.
Based on the media reports that appeared on May 28, 2020, a fresh complaint was filed on behalf of Goencho Avaaz by co-convenor Swapnesh Sherlekar against the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, ministerial colleague Milind Naik and others for defying the orders during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The complainant accused the Chief Minister of being a repeated offender after the incident at Dabolim just a day ago.
The complaint highlighted the provisions in the orders of NDMA which do not exempt public gatherings by government officials and in no case permit any governmental function to be carried out without maintaining social distancing. The complainant also accused Chief Minister and other MLAs named in the complaint of having breached the order under Section 144 CrPC, making them liable to be prosecuted under Section 51 to 60 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Sections 149, 269, 188 of IPC.
It is pertinent to note that Section 269 of IPC states that a “Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life— whoever unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both,” states the press release.
