ST ESTEVAM: In a chilling development which will uncover many untruths and inefficiencies of the police and the government, three men with roots in St Estevam, on a regular patrol on a route not examined by the police, chanced upon a blood-stained vest, close to the Babal Manos Bundh where Goa’s beloved activist priest Father Bismarque Dias was found dead on the night of November 6. His younger sister-in-law Lourdes Dias (wife of younger brother Kennedy) who used to wash the clothes of her brother in-law Bismarque, identified the vest as “most definitely his”. In fact when she received a call from Kennedy Afonso, who was one the three who saw the blood-stained vest, she asked him to check if the brand of the vest was “Jockey”. Afonso then went close to vest and saw that it was indeed a jockey vest. Father Bismarque always wore vests of the same Jockey brand.
The spot where the vest was found inside out (meaning it was yanked off the body and thrown) on the bundh, east of the hut of the edge of the river (known as Babal Manos) towards what is known as Tonca (of St Estevam). This was the road which was used by the two boys Darren and the other 17-year-old on the morning of November 6, to go home, when Father Bismarque had “gone missing” and found the next day in the river, close to the banks of the hut (Baban Manos).
According to locals, the vest was found in direction exactly opposite to where Fr Bismarque’s body was found, though along the same stretch of the river and not too far. (The police estimate it to be about 50 metres).
Kennedy Afonso, who is also the President of the Goans for Goa organisation, explained his findings. He said, “Today on a tip, that some vehicles were seen on the road, that leads to Babal Manos from Tonca, I went to investigate. On the way we found the path and also discovered tyre marks of two vehicles, which led us straight up to the point where the bundh from Tonca, leads to Babal Manos. First we found a spot, where someone had tried to hide something by dumping loose sand. When we sifted though this, we found that the ground was soft and the mud had some marks which looked blood stains. A little further we found a white banian (vest) covered with what also looked like blood stains. We immediately called up Bismarque’s home and inquired if he wore any vests and Lourdes answered that he wore a Jockey vest. On closer examination we acertained that it was a Jockey vest. So we told her to come and do a physical examination and confirm it, which she eventually did.”
Close to the blood-stained vest, were two empty cans of Kingfisher draught beer, one right next to it and the other about ten metres away, which the Old Goa police refused to touch and collect as a crucial sample. According to Manjunath Bhandare, some food packets were also found lying close to the hut where the boys and Father Bismarque supposedly drank, perhaps an hour before he met his end. Herald was unable to independently confirm the presence of food packets though.
Old Goa PI Krishna Sinari, who refused to speak to Herald claiming he was busy, inspite of two requests will have to answer a lot of questions which Herald has raised in the adjoining report. But most importantly, he needs to look at the family of Father Bismarque, his brothers, their wives and his aged mother and tell them how Father Bismarque could have accidently drowned to death when his blood-stained vest was lying in the opposite direction.
