Team Herald
VASCO: Soon after peaceful voting got over, tense situation prevailed at Headland Sada in Mormugao as well as at Birla Zuarinagar in Cortalim constituency over some clashes between Congress and BJP supporters. Heavy pose of police and other security personnel were deployed at both these sensitive locations to avoid any untoward incident.
At Birla in Zuarinagar, a BJP supporter was allegedly beaten up by Congress supporters over some verbal arguments. Soon after the incident was reported large number of BJP supporters reached the site and they later marched to the Birla outpost along with the victim demanding immediate arrest of the accused persons involved in the attack.
Later, RDA Minister Alina Saldanha as well as South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar rushed to the site and demanded immediate arrest of the accused persons. BJP supporters even decided to block the road until police arrested the accused persons, however due to the intervention of Sawaikar the idea was dropped.
Anticipating law and order problem, a strong pose of police was deployed at Birla as well as Birla police outpost. DySP Laurence D’Souza and other senior police officials also rushed to the site and tried to pacify aggrieved BJP supporters with the assurance that police will take strong action against the culprits. BJP supporters also provided names of few habitual offenders from the area with the belief that police would arrest the trouble makers from the area including those who were involved in assault case reported on Saturday evening.
In second incident that occurred at Headland Sada, in an alleged retaliation to the Birla incident, a Congress supporter was allegedly assaulted by BJP supporters, on Saturday evening. Due to the clash between BJP and Congress supporters, situation turned tense. A heavy pose of police was deployed to the site and both the groups were forced to leave the area. Senior police officials were also present at the site. Tension prevailed even till late evening and police teams were present to control law and order situation.
