A special public prosecutor, Adv. Rajeev Gomes has withdrawn his appearance from the high profile Louise Berger bribery case and he has published the same on the social media website. But what is the exact reason behind this drastic step? Why Adv. Gomes suddenly decided to come out of the case which he was handling very well? And what he has published on the social media website? You can read the complete story here…
[su_expand more_text=”READ MORE” less_text=” ” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” link_style=”button” link_align=”center”] Advocate Rajeev Gomes is associated with the Louise Berger case right from its inception and government has handed over to him the responsibility by appointing him the Special Public Prosecutor in this case. What made Adv. Gomes to take this sudden decision? According to the status update posted by the advocate Gomes on his Facebook page, he has stated that “I have withdrawn as Special Public Prosecutor for Goa Crime Branch in the Louis Berger bribery case. The step had to be taken in conformity with professional ethics and to facilitate thorough investigation in the Portuguese Nationality case falsely filed against me and recently sent to Crime Branch for investigation.”
Advocate Gomes told the media that, his departure from the case would not affect the case in any manner since it is still in preliminary stage. In his letter written to the Superintendent of Police (the copy of the same attached here bellow) he has stated that he has been falsely implicated in this matter of dual nationality and the case pertaining to this was registered against him in the south Goa police station has been transferred to the crime branch for the investigation purpose. The case alleges that he is in possession of Portuguese Nationality which according to him is completely false. “It is a false allegation, but in conformity to the ethical standards of profession and to dispel element of suspicion in the investigation due to my SPP status, I immediately withdraw from Crime No. 93/15 of Crime Branch PS/Special case No. 6/2015 – State v. Churchill Alemao and ors,” he said. He also requested the authorities for expediting investigation, so that truth surfaced on what he termed as ‘false allegation’.
In his statement to the Indian Express, he stated that his departure would not affect the case as it is still in a preliminary stage. “Case is pending at the Special Court of Panjim for the appearance of former Louis Berger official James McClung, so case not yet started. Whereas a matter is pending at Supreme Court for the cancellation of his anticipatory bail of (former Goa Chief Minister) Digamber Kamat,” he said.
The Superintendent of the police, Crime Branch, Karthik Kashyap, who is heading the probe in Louise Berger case has said that the new public prosecutor is yet to be appointed in this matter on which the final decision will be taken soon by the Goa Police and state government. He further clarified that the departure of Gomes will not have any adverse impact on the case at this stage as he mostly handled only the bail matters.
As stated in the Indian Express, Another Goa-based Advocate Aires Rodrigues took on to social messenger claiming that the preliminary pliant against the Advocate Gomes’ dual citizenship matter was lodged by Santana Piedade Afonso at Margao police station on February 3rd, which he claimed was transferred by recently transferred DGP TN Mohan to Crime Branch for inquiry. He also attached a softcopy image on what he termed as an actual complaint copy. The Indian Express was not able to verify the claim till the publication of the report.
Source: Various Sources
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