PANJIM: Family members of Fr Bismarque Dias have decided not to claim the priest’s body and not to conduct the funeral until the police investigating the case act against those involved in the killing.
Mario Dias, Bismarque’s younger brother, said that the investigation should be taken out of the hands of Old Goa Police Station and be handed over to Crime Branch for a fair probe.
Bismarque’s family members have urged the government to take immediate steps to initiate appropriate investigations into the matter. Family members have also asked for speedy report of the viscera chemical analysis.
His family members, besides St Estevam villagers and NGOs from across the State, are shocked with the slow pace at which the investigation is proceeding. Five days after his body was discovered, Old Goa police who are investigating the case are yet to record the statements of the family members and look for evidence to establish the death as murder.
“It only indicates the lack of seriousness in the investigations,” Mario said.
On Tuesday evening, Bismarque’s family members sent a memorandum through Panjim Police to Director General of Police T N Mohan demanding that the case investigation be transferred to Crime Branch.
Speaking to media persons, Sudip Dalvi a friend of Bismarque and member of the ‘Musical Warriors’ of which Bismarque was also a member, said that Old Goa Police have dodged the entire investigation and claimed that the theory of drowning as the cause of death is false.
“Police have not investigated that why Bismarque went with two other minor boys to the sluice gate at that hour, why he would go there to drink. If he wanted to drink he would have sat with his friends as he used to,” Dalvi said.
Canady Afonso, a local from St Estevam said that the two persons whose names had been mentioned in the complaint made by Fr Bismarque of being threatened had not yet been interrogated by Old Goa police.
