‘Monster father’ goes missing after bail

Nandkumar Rajurkar,the lawyer representing Genevieve Gomes,Francis’ daughter,said,“It is an error on the part of the jail authorities for letting Gomes walk free after bail was granted by the Vasai magistrate court despite the fact that the Thane Judicial Magistrate court,which is superior in jurisdiction,had specifically directed the jail authorities on the same day to escort Gomes to KEM hospital for tests on his mental state.”

Genevieve had made an application before the Thane Magistrate on Thursday to deny her father bail and seeking that he be sent for psychiatric treatment.

However,when contacted,Thane Jail Superintendent Yogesh Desai said,“The application presented by Genevieve in the Thane court was only restricted to the issue of sending Gomes for mental health treatment and had nothing to do with his release or confinement. In the meanwhile,the Vasai court had already granted bail to Gomes and so we had to release him. We did inform the Thane magistrate court about the order of Vasai court before releasing Gomes on bail.”

Meanwhile,Manikpur police officials claim that Gomes came to the police station on Sunday morning and after collecting his house keys and other belongings went untraceable. However,Bhushan Gujjar,the advocate representing Gomes said,“Francis had been granted bail on a personal bond by the Vasai magistrate and was released on Saturday. On Sunday,he went to Manikpur police station to collect his house keys and went to his house but some neighbours allegedly prevented him from entering the house. He had come to me on Monday afternoon and told me about this. I advised him to approach the police authorities as no one had the right to prohibit him from entering his house.”

R Gopalkrishnan,the social activist who had been instrumental in rescuing the family of Gomes,said,“The magistrate had ordered that Gomes be taken for mental health tests at KEM but he has been missing and we are trying to trace him since then.”