Sixty-year-old Francis Gomes — arrested for allegedly confining his wife and daughters to their Vasai house for over 7 years — going missing after he was released on bail from Thane Jail has triggered a blame game between lawyers of the victims and the Thane jail authorities.

Gomes, who was supposed to be sent to KEM Hospital for tests on his mental state as ordered by the Thane Chief Judicial Magistrate on Thursday, was released on bail on Saturday morning. Bail was granted by the Vasai magistrate’s court on Thursday before the tests could be completed and Gomes has been missing since.

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.”

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