MARGAO, MARCH 24
There’s no breakthrough in the desecration of Crosses and the Grotto at Chandor, even as the police maintained that they are investigating the case from all angles.
Sub-divisional Police Officer, Margao DySP Umesh Gaonkar told Herald that this is the first time that Crosses and religious statues have been damaged and that too on the eve of the Assembly session, while recalling that many of the previous incidents had taken place close to the Assembly session or when the House was in session.
“The police are trying to verify the case from all angles. Besides the Grotto and the Crosses, even some private property has been demanded. May be, private property was targeted to divert the attention of the investigating agency”, he said.
Replying to a question, the DySP said that a person with a psychic history behind the incident cannot be ruled out, but hastened to add that the case needs to be investigated from all angles.
Saying that the police have taken a serious note of the incident, DySP Gaonkar said the police would not spare the culprits involved in trying to creating a divide in the village.
“This is an act against the society. We have to unitedly fight attempts to divide the society on communal lines. We cannot allow this to happen”, he said.
He solicited cooperation from the people to solve the sensitive case, saying it must have taken at least an hour’s time for the miscreants to desecrate and vandalise the religious symbols.
The DySP has appealed to the people to contact him personally on his mobile phone 9822144466, promising that any information on the incident will be kept a secret and will be used to solve the case.
“The police have tightened security in and around places of worship after the incident at Chandor. Patrolling has been intensified. Plainclothes personnel have been deployed at certain place”, he said, adding that the police are trying to verifying the movement of certain person in Chandor on the fateful night.
“I am confident that the police will come out with a breakthrough with the cooperation of the people of Chandor’, he added.
Taking into account that a ladder was used to damage the cross on the anchor atop the band stand and the time involved in causing a trail of destruction, DySP Gaonkar felt that the desecration incident is the handiwork of more than two persons.
