Trial in Russian woman rape case to begin today
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, APRIL 29
Decks have been cleared for the trial in the Russian woman rape case from Friday with the South Goa sessions court on Thursday rejecting the revision application filed by accused John Fernandes against the order of the Judicial Magistrate First Class committing the case to the Sessions court.
In his application, John had contended that the JMFC, Margao had not given him time peruse the order on committal. He had further contended that the JMFC ought to have posted the matter for hearing on committal and that the JMFC had failed to appreciate the mandatory provision of Section 208, 209 and 91 of the Cr P C.
Rejecting the application, Additional Sessions Judge, P V Sawaikar observed that opportunity was given to the accused to make the submission before the JMFC, adding that the Magistrate was required to see only whether the material on record discloses any offense triable exclusively by the Court of Sessions. “The Magistrate cannot go into the evidence and discuss the merits of the case. It is settled law that the magistrate is not required to discuss in detail the evidence. The committal order should only disclose that the Magistrate has applied her mind and that it appears to her that an offense is triable exclusively by the court of sessions”, Judge Sawaikar said.
He said the observation made by the Magistrate that material on record discloses the Commission of offense punishable under section 376 of the IPC is sufficient to show that the Magistrate had gone through the material and it appears to her that an offense under section 376 is disclosed, adding that it was not necessary for the Magistrate to further discuss the evidence.
“The contention of the accused that the Magistrate has not complied with section 207 of the IPC or that she had passed an order of committal without going through the material on record bears no merit”, the Judge said.
On objections raised by John’s lawyer for the judicial pronouncements annexed by the Crime branch to the charge sheet filed against the accused, the Judge said the judicial pronouncements annexed to the charge sheet are the orders passed by different courts during the course of investigations.
“The documents are public documents. Mere annexing the documents to the charge sheet does not prejudice in any way the right of the accused. Since these orders were made in the course of investigations and are related to the case, it cannot be said that these are irrelevant documents. In any case, if prosecution want to rely on the said documents, they cannot be deprived of their right. It is the prerogative of the prosecution to rely on said documents which it feels are relevant. The relevance of the said documents cannot be decided by the magistrate since the offence alleged is triable exclusively by the sessions court”, Judge Sawaikar added.
