Booked for obstructing police on duty
TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Margao police registered criminal cases against MLAs Vijai Sardesai and Reginaldo Lourenco and three others for obstructing police in discharging their duties, even as the police moved in to stop music at Vijai Sardesai’s Fatorda Carnival bash past midnight.
The two MLAs have been booked under various provisions of the IPC for deterring government servant from discharging their duties as the Margao police claimed that the police jeep was stoned when the police team was about to return back with the seized music appliances.
The incident occurred after midnight when a police party descended at the SGPDA parking lot, the venue of the Carnival bash following repeated complaints of loud music being played by the organisers in violation of the provisions of loud music.
Margao PI Sudesh Naik informed that when the police team led by PSI Girendra Naik ordered the organisers to stop the music at around 12.45 am, there was no response, prompting the police to seize the musical appliances. Sources said that senior police officers were left fuming after the police team came at the receiving end of the Fatorda MLA when he reportedly used foul language against the cops. “The police had been receiving repeated complaints from a lawyer and parents that loud music was going on beyond 11 pm. We explained to them that the organisers had permission to play music till 12 midnight. Our police team later visited the venue since the lawyer threatened to take the police to High Court”, informed a senior police officer.
The Fatorda MLA, however, begged to differ. “The police came at the venue at 12.15 am and told us to stop playing music. We requested for some time to wind up the show, but the police team went and unplugged the music cords,” he said, while recalling that the police had last year too stopped his Adieus Carnival show on political grounds.
