An initial FIR against popstar Remo Fernandes for verbally abusing a minor girl earlier this month has snowballed into a major controversy, with the victim’s lawyer claiming he is a Portuguese citizen and received the prestigious Padma Shree award after renouncing his Indian citizenship.
Remo’s son Jonah was initially booked for rash and negligient driving after his car ran over a pedestrian minor girl seriously injuring her left foot.
Following the incident, Remo is alleged to have visited the girl at the hospital and abused her after negotiations over compensation fell through. Remo was in the car at the time of the incident.
The police have questioned Jonah Fernandes in connection with the complaint of abuse even as they have summoned Remo, who is currently in Europe. The FIR was filed under the Goa Children’s Act, a special legislation specifically dealing with crimes against children in Goa.
“I have documents which reveal that Remo Fernandes acquired Portuguese citizenship on May 21, 1993, while he was awarded the Padma Shri award in 2007,” the victim’s lawyer Aires Rodrigues has alleged.
The accident took place on December 01, when the girl who hails from Sindhudurg in Maharashtra is was on a walking pilgrimage to Old Goa in honour of St Francis Xavier.
Remo didn’t specifically reply to the charge of holding Portuguese citizenship, when asked for a comment on the citizenship controversy. “Oops! Next he’s going to discover and charge that I’ve dyed my hair red!” Remo told The Pioneer.
Officials at North Goa’s Agacaim police station have also confirmed, that they had asked the Foreigners Regional Registration Office of the Goa Police as to whether the third summon under section 41 of the CrPC to Remo can be issued via the Indian embassy in lisbon.
Remo has failed to heed to summons claiming that he has prior engagements abroad and that he would be represented by his lawyers.
Goa was a former colony of the Portugal for 451 year, right up to 1961, when the Indian army liberated the State. Portuguese law allows Goans whose parents and grandparents were born in Portuguese-held Goa to ‘claim’ what was once theirs.
A Portuguese passport and nationality allows those Goans who get it to get jobs in Europe without the need for a work visa provides ease of passage in the Western world allowing visa free entry in almost 178 countries and has been major outmigration route chosen by Goa’s native residents.