Team Herald
VERNA: In a shocking incident, Verna Sarpanch Anthony D’Costa alias Tony D’Costa, a proprietor of a bar and restaurant and one Sebastiao Pereira allegedly assaulted a 35-year-old Verna resident Francis D’Mello while having dinner with a friend at a bar and restaurant in Nuvem. The footage of incident captured on CCTV camera went viral on the Internet.
An FIR was registered against Tony and Sebastiao at the Maina Curtorim Police Station under Sections 232, 352, 504, 506(ii), 356 and 379 read with 34 of IPC.
According to the victim, at around 9.30 pm Tony was leaving the restaurant when he spotted Francis sitting in the restaurant. Tony went out, then came back and punched Francis in the face. He then caught Francis’s T-shirt and tried to drag him out. Tony grabbed and took away Francis’ mobile phone when he tried calling up the police. Francis stated that Sebastiao assaulted him with a blow on his face. Tony abused other customers who tried to stop him from assaulting Francis.
Later, Francis called the police and was taken to Hospicio for a medical test. Francis suffered injuries to his teeth and nose which was bleeding. The police officers claimed to have found Francis’ mobile phone at the restaurant the next morning.
Former MLA Mickky Pacheco, who accompanied Francis in the police station, alleged that there is pressure from some top-level officer to hush up the case.
It is learnt that this is not the first time Tony has assaulted Francis. On August 15, at a coconut festival in Verna, Tony allegedly threw a coconut at Francis, which hit him on his head. Francis had filed a complaint at the Verna Police station. However, no action was taken.
Earlier, the victim had filed complaints against an open-air hall allegedly coming up near the Verna lake as well as illegal plots being constructed on the Verna Plateau, which was first reported by Herald. In the gram sabha, the villagers had made allegations against the sarpanch for taking bribes to permit the illegalities. The victim, Francis claims that the sarpanch wanted to take revenge on him.
