North Goa Principal District & Sessions Judge Irshad Agha today adjourned to January 11th the Anticipatory bail Application filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues in the alleged 2016 dual nationality case. The Court directed that the interim relief granted to Adv. Rodrigues will continue.
Adv. Rodrigues today filed a 25 page reply to the say of the Investigating Officer of the Crime Branch that was filed last week.
In his reply Adv. Rodrigues has reiterated that he is a citizen of India and has at no point of time surrendered his Indian Citizenship.
Adv. Rodrigues has stated that he has reasonable ground to believe that on account of his animosity with the current Chief Minister that he has been falsely implicated in this case.
Adv. Rodrigues in his reply has stated that on 29th March 2016 his five page detailed statement was recorded by the Crime Branch and that he was surprised to receive a notice again after two long years.
Adv. Rodrigues has also stated that a complaint was also filed against him with the Bar Council of Maharastra and Goa that he was a foreign national and that the complaint was dismissed by an order on 12th April 2017.
Pointing out that over the last four decades he has taken up various issues in public interest including confronting the present Chief Minister and the Police department including the Crime Branch over its various acts of omission and commission, Adv. Rodrigues in his reply has stated that the false and fabricated case against him was being investigated out of vindictiveness.
Adv. Rodrigues has also stated that the complaint against him was filed mischievously, malafiedly with ulterior motive and for oblique purposes.
Taking strong exception to the very false statement made by the Crime Branch in their say that 13 criminal cases were pending against him, Adv. Rodrigues while pointing out that not a single criminal case was pending against him has drawn the Court’s attention to the letter of the Superintendent of Police, Special Branch on 18th May 2016 written to the Goa Passport Officer recommending that he be issued a passport as there was no criminal case against him.
Adv. Rodrigues has also drawn the Court’s attention that in other identical complaints on dual nationality the police have closed the cases stating that they have no power to investigate while only keeping his case pending.
Stating that he has never applied in his own handwriting for Portuguese Citizenship or Passport, Adv. Rodrigues has sought that the Court direct the Crime Branch to produce his application form for Portuguese Citizenship and Passport.
