Three years ago, they ran to their Church to protect their Priest. For that ‘crime’, the God fearing people of Velim walked to court like common criminals on Monday, with heavy hearts, disjointed lives and uncertain futures. All victims of a system where the genuine are dragged to court, while criminals roam free.
These are men of faith. They are peace loving and simple folk who work hard for their living. As they sat along with a high ranking priest, the South Goa Episcopal Vicar Fr Lucio Dias, in court the heaviness in their hearts resonated among all in the premises. The world knows that many of them have been wrongly accused for the “attack” on Velim Church and are facing various charges of offences like unlawful assembly, attempt to murder and other various charges.
Most of those who were present in Court, are fellow sufferers whose livelihoods have been affected by this case. Some of them were not even present on the Church premises on February 25, 2012 when villagers rushed to the Church and got to know that tax raids were conducted on their priest. And when a priest is insulted, a man who doesn’t harm a fly can make his walking stick a weapon to counter attack. But many didn’t even do that. And that is the tragedy of the people of Velim. Each of them had to furnish a bail bond of Rs 10,000 including folks like Max Colaco who as at home watching television (as we have reported) when the incident happened.
The manner in which investigations have been carried out is careless and callous. Names of accused are spelt wrongly, addresses against their names are incorrect, one of them was away in Pune attending classes when the incident took place and has his attendance register to prove this. One of the accused was about to set sail and earn a living when he was named along with the 22 accused and lost his job. All of them are a part 22 randomly picked out of a sum of 1500, originally listed as unknown accused. The process and the method of this selective targeting is a mystery.
This is cruelty of the worst kind. And the Parsekar government’s promise to close these cases and set these innocents free has to be kept or else this will be the last nail in the political coffin of the BJP in this area. But the cruelty is not just political. It is human. To see elderly men with walking sticks climbing stairs to sign papers in court today moved many to tears. What kind of an inhuman state are we living in? No civilised society plays with the lives of so many in a manner such as this. All it takes is for the state is to withdraw these cases purely on ground of humanity.
The humungous ego that the State carries should be set aside, knowing that the people they are affecting are the elderly who wouldn’t harm a fly and the young who are starting out in their careers. None of them are criminals and anti-socials. This torture should end right now.
