North Goa Principal District & Sessions Judge Irshad Agha today adjourned to June 28thfurther hearing of the infamous 2001 multi crore Power scam case against now Goa Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho as the Advocate for Mauvin Godinho sought further time to file his reply to the application that was moved by Adv. Aires Rodrigues seeking to assist the prosecution. Judge Agha directed Mauvin Godinho’s lawyer to give a copy of his reply two days in advance to Adv. Rodrigues.
As directed by the Court at the last hearing, Mauvin Godinho remained present in Court today and is facing trial along with four other accused including former Chief Electrical Engineer T.Nagarajan under Sections 13 (1) (d) (i)and (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988 read with Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
At a last hearing on May 3rd, Adv. Aires Rodrigues filed an intervention application seeking to assist the Prosecution while submitting before Judge Agha that in public interest he is constrained to intervene as the accused Mauvin Godinho is a very powerful and well connected politician currently being the Panchayat Minister and may try to deviously in collusion with the government attempt to derail the due process of law.
Stating that the Complainant in the case Manohar Parrikar who is now the Chief Minister and the accused Mauvin Godinho having now become strange bedfellows there was very serious apprehension that the two would collude in this very serious case of corruption where loss to the State exchequer was to the tune of crores of rupees.
Pointing out that Mauvin Godinho had managed to stall the proceedings in the Supreme Court for over a decade, Adv. Rodrigues further submitted that Mauvin Godinho with the blessings of the BJP government in November 2012 even managed to get Adv. Subhasini who was appearing in the Supreme Court for the State abruptly removed and replaced in 2017 with an Advocate of his choice but that fortunately Mauvin Godinho’s gimmick was fruitless in the Supreme Court.
Stating that any act of corruption was a very serious crime against the State, Adv. Rodrigues submitted in his application that those politically well connected cannot be allowed to go scot free in any act of Corruption.
Adv. Rodrigues also submitted that the Goa Government which has conveniently been appointing Special Public Prosecutors even in petty cases has not proved its bonafides by appointing a Special Public Prosecutor in this multi crore Power Scam Case.
Stating that the accused Mauvin Godinho should have infact resigned or been sacked, Adv. Rodrigues has drawn the attention of the Court to a 2014 landmark Judgment where the Supreme Court had advised not to induct as Ministers charge sheeted persons facing trial and held that criminalization of politics destroyed people’s faith in democracy and that persons howsoever high could not be exempted from equal treatment.
Adv. Rodrigues also submitted that he has a bonafide reason to believe that the ruling Government through the Prosecution will exert pressure to ensure that the accused Mauvin Godinho is saved from the jaws of law without following the due process as mandated by law.
On 17th January this year while disposing Mauvin Godinho’s petition which was pending before the Supreme Court for over a decade, a bench comprising of Justice N.V.Ramana and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer while upholding the High Court order directing framing of charge declined to give any relief to the former Power Minister Mauvin Godinho in the Special Leave Petition which he had filed in 2007.
Mauvin Godinho had challenged the order passed by the Bombay High Court directing framing of charges against him in the multi-crore power scam case. By an order dated October 26, 2007, then Bombay High Court at Goa Justice Nelson Britto had directed framing of charges against Mauvin Godinho under Section 13(1) (d) (i) and (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.
Justice Nelson Britto had in his order also noted that the charges against Mauvin Godinho came to be investigated and charge sheet filed based on a complaint filed by Manohar Parrikar and that it appeared that the case took different turns depending upon which government was in power in Goa.
