MARGAO: The series of desecrations and vandalisations of religious structures that had shocked Goa in mid-2017 ended with the arrest of Francis Pereira on the night of July 15. But almost two-and-a-half years later, police have not managed to earn a single conviction, and there is just one case now pending against Pereira. Police hope this case will earn a conviction, as it was the one for which he was initially arrested.
On July 9, 2017 all of Goa woke up shocked to discover that the Guardian Angel Cemetery at Curchorem had been vandalised after the CCTV cameras installed there had been damaged. Police personnel, who arrived at the cemetery, because they heard some sounds, saw a person running away. In all 28 niches, five wooden crosses, eight granite crosses and 16 tombs had been destroyed in the cemetery.
Police then started looking out for the person, as there were desecrations of religious places happening elsewhere too, quite regularly and at different places. They monitored CCTV cameras, and intensified nakabandi, and finally arrested Pereira at around 3 am on July 15, 2017 as he was returning home.
Pereira’s vehicle was noticed at nakabandi points close to the place where desecration of a religious monument had taken place and even CCTV footage showed him to be near the places where the desecration had taken place.
Following his arrest, and police recovering in his car the hammer allegedly used to smash the religious structures, Pereira was taken to his house where other instruments used in allegedly committing the crime were collected.
Once arrested, police said that Pereira confessed that he had damaged 113 religious monuments and even took the police to some of those places. Police also said that he had revealed plans to desecrate other places, including the Lohia statue at Lohia Maidan in Margao and the Abbe Faria statue at Panjim near the old Secretariat.
Based on this confession, police booked various cases against Pereira, but only two cases were taken up for trial, while in all other cases charges were not filed as the police had relied mainly on Pereira’s confession to file the case.
The two cases that were being tried, were the desecration of the Curchorem cemetery, which is continuing, and the desecration of the Tari Khuris at Cotta in Chandor, in which Pereira was acquitted recently, as the prosecution failed to prove the charges against him.
Pereira was discharged from all the other cases filed against him in the Margao courts, except for the one pertaining to the desecration of a cross at the canoe point at Cotta in Chandor where the Assistant Public Prosecutor had argued that under the Indian Evidence Act, evidence can be produced subsequently.
