TEAM HEALD
MARGAO: Parishioners of St Rock Church, Tolleacanto woke up on Tuesday to hear the shocking news of the desecration of crosses when around 92 crosses from the cemetery were found removed and thrown outside.
The Cuncolim police rounded up a woman allegedly of unsound mind and after interrogation in the presence of a women’s NGO was referred to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB).
The incident came to light Tuesday morning when a parishioner visited the cemetery to clean the grave in view of the Mass scheduled for September 18. When she found the cross on the grave missing, she headed to the Church to inform Parish Priest Fr Luis Coutinho about the missing cross. “It was at around 8.30 am that the woman approached me and informed that a cross from the grave has gone missing. Since I was heading to the homes of the sick with the Holy Communion, I told the woman to get in touch with the Church clerk and sort out the issue. But, when I returned back at around 10 am, I was told by the Fabrica members and the parishioners that around 92 crosses from the graves were uprooted and thrown outside the cemetery,” Fr Luis recalled.
The parishioners had cleaned up the cemetery a day ago on Sunday.
Incidentally, Fr Luis said that one of the parishioners informed that he had seen a ‘mentally unsound’ woman coming out of the cemetery Monday evening, even as the Parish Priest immediately intimated the Cuncolim police about the incident. A police team which rushed to the spot later managed to lay their hands on the woman, who was walking on the road towards Betul side. The police also pressed into service a sniffer dog, which sniffed its way from the field, where the crosses were dumped, before losing track on the road.
DySP Mohan Naik said the woman disclosed during interrogation in the presence of the NGO member Auda Viegas that she had cleaned up the crosses from the cemetery and thrown them outside because they were old. “The woman Levi Afonso allegedly said that she has cleaned the cemetery and cleared all the old crosses on the graves and thrown them outside. Her statement was recorded in the presence of NGO member Auda Viegas. She has since been admitted in the IPHB,” DySP Naik said.
The Cuncolim police has registered an offence under Section 295 against unknown persons for hurting the religious sentiments of the people by desecrating the crosses.
As news spread about the desecration, the parishioners rushed to the cemetery to recover the crosses thrown outside. While some managed to recover the crosses in good condition, many others were left damaged. “Some of the crosses were later installed by the parishioners while some of the damaged crosses could not be identified,” Fr Luis said.
Replying to a question, Fr Luis ruled out any foul play by miscreants, saying the police interrogations have revealed no sinister design behind the incident.
