Team Herald

PORVORIM: Following accused Francis Pereira being acquitted in a series of cases of desecration of religious structures, the Congress suspects the involvement of other miscreants in the crimes and apprehends more such cases in the future. 

Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, in a Zero Hour mention, raised the apprehensions and anxiety in the minds of peace loving people of Goa following a series of acquittals of Francis Pereira, who was arrested for desecrating 19 religious structures across Goa, last year.

“Of the total 19 cases he (Pereira) was charge-sheeted, he has been acquitted in 11 cases. What does this indicate? There is someone else behind this entire scene,” Kavlekar said. 

“We had said in the past that it is not possible for one person to commit such a big crime and there must be involvement of others. Government needs to investigate that,” he demanded. 

Trying to ally the apprehension, Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar, who is currently in charge of the government in the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, said Pereira was acquitted due to lack of evidence. “At the same time, we cannot ignore the fact that after he was arrested, no more such incidents were reported,” he said. 

Dhavalikar said there are still seven cases pending before the court and the government will be able to reply in detail once the orders of those are out.

 “As we have said, our night vigilance is on. Police patrolling is on,” he said.