MARGAO: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was not only castigated but even accused of being the mastermind behind the desecration of religious places in Goa by Congressmen who were reacting to Francisco Pereira’s allegation that he was coerced to admit to those crimes.
While MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco said the Home Department stands disgraced due to Francisco’s allegations, All India Congress Committee Secretary Girish Chodankar demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigations be asked to investigate the matter.
“If Parrikar coerced Francisco to admit to the desecration it means the whole thing is a master plan by Parrikar and the Home Department under him cannot be fair and impartial in the investigations,” Reginaldo said.
He said it was the strategy of a particular “ideology” that carried out the desecration, got Francisco to accept responsibility and have now stopped the desecration. “But the desecration will start, (but) you never know when, because it is the same ideology that Parrikar shares that is responsible for this,” Reginaldo said.
Girish on the other hand demanded a CBI probe on grounds that if the Home Minister had coerced the accused to accept the blame the investigations cannot be relied upon.
“As the chief minister cannot be trusted now, I demand that an FIR be filed against the persons named by Francisco as those who coerced him to admit to the crime including the chief minister,” Girish said and demanded that Nilesh Cabral should apologise for speaking against the Church when it had initially questioned whether Francisco was the real culprit.
“In order to have a fair probe in the matter, I demand that the investigations be handed over to the CBI,” he said.
