GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO
Is the government decision to settle for a regular public prosecutor to defend the state in the high profile power scam case involving Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho the exception rather than the rule?
Even as many an eyebrow has been raised over the government decision not to go in for a Special Public Prosecutor in the power scam case, (Crime Branch) SP Karthik Kashyap was quick to defend the decision, saying the regular public prosecutors are capable enough to defend the interest of the state in criminal matters, including the power scam case.
However, in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao, where trial in the 17-year old Ticketgate involving former Law Minister Dayanand Narvekar is being conducted, there’s not just one, but two special public prosecutors defending the State for close to half a decade now.
Come every Thursday and city-based lawyers, Adv Vinay Borkar and Adv Pritam Moraes make it a point to be present in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao. It’s now more than a decade since the government had appointed Adv Vinay Borkar, with Adv Pritam joining him in defending the state for close to four years now.
In fact, a special public prosecutor has been representing the State from day one in the Ticketgate case involving Narvekar. When the case was taken up in the court in 2011, the then government had drafted senior counsel as the Special Public prosecutor to represent the state in the case, ostensibly on the premise that Narvekar had been the state’s former Law Minister.
Seventeen years later, special public prosecutors continue to appear in the Ticketgate case, though many in political circles would admit
