Mangaluru: In a case registered at the Bunder Police Station in the City eight years ago, as per High Court order, the Criminal Investigation Depatment (CID) investigated the case, and have found a woman lawyer from Mangaluru as well as her clerk as the accused in the case. Thus, with this it is clear that there is no substance in the false allegation levelled against Senior Advocate Melwyn Prakash Noronha.
Eight years ago, a resident of Mangaluru had approached a lawyer here to divorce his first wife in order to get married to the girl he was in love with. He asked the lawyer to get an order from the court. In July 2005 stating that there has been a divorce already and took a decree of divorce. After passing of divorce order, the man who had filed for divorce died. Later, a dispute arose between the first wife and the second wife over the distribution of bonds and FDs that were in the name of the deceased. Subsequently, a case in this regard was filed in the court. In that case, the second wife believed that the decree of divorce of the first wife was a genuine document, and thus produced it in the court in 2009 through Senior Advocate M. P. Noronha. However, when the decree was examined in thecourt, it was found that it was a fake document. Following this, Senior Advocate M. P. Noronha had applied to the court to protect the court’s honour and had retired immediately from the case.
However, in 2014, five years after the incident, some individuals in social media and newspapers published that with wrong intentions, Senior Advocate Noronha had created a fake decree in the case and produced it before the court.
Initially, the case was probed by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police. Later as per State High Court order, the investigation was carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) police. Meanwhile, the CID police conducted a thorough investigation into the case and filed an additional chargesheet against a senior woman lawyer from Mangaluru and her clerk for creating a fake decree. This has now freed Advocate Noronha from false allegations floated against him with accusations against him found to be false. The CID investigation has confirmed that Senior Advocate M. P. Noronha is completely innocent. Further, there is a law which says that any lawyer shall not be liable if he produces before the court the documents given by his clients to justify their stand.
