MARGAO, APRIL 9
The accused in the Russian woman rape case, John Fernandes has challenged the order of the lower court committing the rape case to the court of Sessions and has prayed that the matter be sent back to the JMFC, Margao for proper inquiry and order on proper committal.
Filing a revision application before the Sessions Court, the accused submitted that he was not given any hearing before the JMFC passed the order on committal of the case to the Sessions court for trial.
In his application, the accused pointed out that he was not given time to go through the orders rejecting his application for extract copies of the station diary and the objection raised for attachment of additional documents by the Crime branch to the charge sheet.
Additional Sessions Judge P V Sawaikar has posted the matter for arguments on the revision application on April 19.
The Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao had last month passed an order committing the rape case filed by the Crime branch to the Sessions court for trial. In this connection, the accused had made his presence felt before the Additional Sessions Judge on the last occasion, who had posted the matter for arguments before framing of charges against the accused.
The Colva resident has been charged by the Crime branch for allegedly raping a Russian woman in the month of December after allegedly spiking her drinks. He was subsequently arrested by the Crime branch in the first week of January after he surrendered to the investigating agency when his bail plea failed to find favour with the Supreme court. Since his surrender, John has been behind bars for the last three months after his bail plea was twice rejected by the Sessions court.
