By IANS,
Panaji : A Goa court Friday ordered the police to file a chargesheet against state Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane for threatening to kill an advocate two years ago.
Rane is the son of former chief minister and the current speaker of the assembly Pratapsingh Rane.
The order follows the failure of the police to honour a written assurance given to the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court September last year saying that a chargesheet would be filed against Rane.
In 2007, advocate Aires Rodrigues was forced to file a private complaint before a magistrate after the police failed to register a first information report (FIR) against the minister.
The threat call was allegedly made from a mobile phone belonging to Rane’s wife Divya.
While initially Rane maintained that he did not even know Rodrigues, the minister later acknowledged that he did make a call to the lawyer from his wife’s mobile phone.
Interestingly, in her statement to the police, Divya has maintained that her phone was in her husband’s possession and she had no knowledge about any calls made by him.
The police’s role has come under severe criticism after officials made repeated attempts to drop charges against the minister.