TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Bharatiya Janata Party today alleged that there was a hidden agenda behind the protests against police action against marine engineer Devu Chodankar. Chodankar is in the dock for posting some allegedly defamatory and inflammatory posts against Narendra Modi.
BJP spokesperson Pramod Sawant at a press conference held today, alleged that some other people had operated the accused’s Facebook account while he was in Mumbai and these elements were worried that he would reveal their names during investigation. According to him these were the people who were protesting in a bid to try and avert this.
He also denied that there was any government interference in the case. According to Sawant the case was a private complaint and it was up to the police to decide the manner and course of investigation in the case. He also took on the opposition questioning their motives for targeting the government for this.
Yesterday, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is also the home minister had also denied that the state government was involved in the issue.
The issue had gone national with the protests held yesterday being carried nationwide by the media. Protestors had alleged that this was an attempt to intimidate and curb freedom of speech.
Agitators had pointed out that the message was posted on FB on March 23 and summons were issued on May 12. Agitators also claim that police had filed the FIR to harass Chodankar by getting him into their custody. And that the BJP government was trying to murder democracy.
The police’s attempts to arrest the 33-year old from Chimbel from for his anti-Narendra Modi comments on social networking site saw political opponents like Congress, Aam Admi Party taking a chance to put the BJP, upbeat after its victory in the Lok Sabha, on the back foot.
Chodankars lawyer Jatin Naik also confirmed that they would be approaching the High Court in the matter.
The protestors had demanded that government should immediately intervene and drop all charges against Chodankar.
