Lyndon withdraws his anticipatory bail petition at 5.25 pm
2010-06-14
Two strange events have taken place at the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court today. The second and most recent is Lyndon Monteiro accused in the Nadia Barretto death case withdrew his anticipatory bail petition through his legal counsel, at 5.25pm today. The reason given was since he was directed by the High Court to remain present in person on June 17, 2010, he preferred to withdraw his plea for anticipatory bail which was filed by his mother Elvina Monteiro.
The first strange event was earlier in the day in Court No 3 of the High Court, presided over by Justice Salvi, instead of the Lyndon's lawyer Amit Palekar or the Public Prosecutor Carlos Ferreira opening the hearing, firebrand social activist Adv Aires Rodrigues jumped up and addressed the court as an officer of the court. He pointed out that there was blatant hoodwinking of the High Court Registry by filing a case for anticipatory bail under Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code which is regular bail of a convicted felon already in prison.
According to the law only the person asking for anticipatory bail can make an application for it under Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He has to appear in person before the judge. He cannot ask a family member to plead for him. Aires Rodrigues argued that the rules for the common man cannot be changed to accomodate the rich and powerful.
Now, the registry of the High Court is in trouble. The Judge will come down heavily on all who were responsible for admitting Lyndon Monteiro's mother's plea for anticipatory bail on her son's behalf. Insiders say there will be suspensions, because the suspicion is that large amounts of money have changed hands. The very fact that the wrong number was inserted in the plea makes for some interesting fallout in the High Court itself. It looks like the money power of this murky case has tainted even the High Court. For the sake of Goa, we hope it was a genuine mistake of someone in the High Court Registry who did not know the law.
The Public Prosecutor argued that his argument ran along the same lines. But his statement was not as incisive or convincing as Adv. Rodrigues. In fact, PP Ferreira, did not have to do any arguing at all. It was Aires Rodrigues show all the way.
TARGET GOA warned Adv Rodrigues that Lyndon and his friends would come after him will all barrels blazing, but Rodrigues laughed it off saying he has no ill-will towards Lyndon. He is just doing what he thinks is right. "Why", he said, "Lyndon came to my birthday celebrations recently and gifted me this grey shirt that I wear often." Adv Ares Rodrigues lives life on the edge. Goa owes him a debt of gratitude.
