Desirous of a career in the hospitality industry, Shane switched lanes and went on to study law in order to take over the legal battle from his father.
October 20, 2011 was a night that altered the course of several lives. Two—Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez, victims of the notorious Amboli Bar murders—were snuffed out and several others scarred beyond redemption. The killings also changed the life of Keenan’s younger brother, Shane, who was barely 19 then.
Desirous of a career in the hospitality industry, Shane switched lanes and went on to study law in order to take over the legal battle from his father, Valerian, who had fought valiantly and doggedly till then. On Wednesday, Shane appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of the victims’ families to oppose the bail plea of one of the four convicted of murdering his brother and friend, and obtained an order allowing Valerian to intervene in the proceedings.
The ordeal had begun on October 20, 2011, when Keenan (24), Reuben (29) and a group of their friends were partying at the Amboli Bar And Kitchen Restaurant at Andheri. When they were leaving the spot, the four accused—Jitendra Rana, Satish Dulgaj, Sunil Bhot and Deepak Tival—allegedly passed lewd remarks at two women from the group. They retreated after Keenan intervened but later returned to the spot with many more people and weapons and brutally attacked him and Reuben. Keenan died the same day while Reuben succumbed to his injuries 10 days later.
Because of the hard work of the prosecution and investigating team, the accused were convicted five years later and sentenced to life imprisonment until death. A few months later, however, they approached the Bombay high court, challenging their conviction and sentencing, primarily on the contention that the motive behind the double murder was not established by the prosecution.
“That was what changed things for me,” said Shane. “The next and crucial step in the case was the appeals of the four against their convictions before the Bombay high court. I started taking a keen interest in the case and doing the rounds of the courts, anxious that the convictions be retained in the appeals. That’s when I decided to take up law.”
Before the trial, Shane knew only what his brother’s friends had told him about the crime. Once it commenced, new layers of the prosecution case began to unfold before him, with testimonies of formal witnesses, recovery panchnamas and such other technicalities. “It was fascinating and challenging,” said Shane, who was then doing a hospitality course at St Andrews.
Although Shane completed the course in 2016, in 2017, he took the LLB entrance examination and secured admission to the law course in New Law College, Matunga. “Even though my first interest was in the hospitality industry, after my brother’s murder, I wanted to learn more and understand how things worked in a court of law in order to take up his case. Hence, I decided to switch and take up legal practice,” he said.
In 2020, Shane completed his law course and began practising. “After so many years, when I started perusing the files, all the memories, all the pain that my family went through, came gushing back,” he said, heavy-voiced with emotion.
On November 14 last year, Rana moved a plea before the Bombay high court for bail during the pendency of his appeal. After a division bench of Justice Nitin Sambre and Justice R N Laddha rejected it on January 20 this year, observing that strong evidence was available on record to show that the attack on Keenan and Reuben was premeditated, Rana approached the Supreme Court. This time, Shane, with the help of his senior, advocate Hemant Shah, will take him on in court.
On Wednesday, the apex court allowed the plea of Valerian Santos to intervene in the proceedings. Shane will now represent him and oppose Rana’s bail plea.
“The crime of those responsible for the death of my son is back again to haunt our families, as one of them has appealed to the Supreme Court for Grant of Bail and Suspension of Sentence,” Valerian Santos wrote on his social media page on Monday night. “God has blessed me, as the battle led to my other son taking up Law.”
Source : Hindustan Times