Team Herald
PANJIM: Praising Goa Police for detecting the serial desecration with the arrest of Francis Pereira, BJP’s Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral has hit out at the social wing of Goa Church over its demand for a judicial probe.
“You can’t ask for a judicial inquiry. It does not make sense when he (the alleged vandal) has confessed to desecrating the religious structure,” he told the media in response to a question whether the demand of the Church body was justified.
A fact finding team of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) and the Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) had questioned police claims that the incidents of serial desecration in Goa is the alleged handiwork of one person and claimed the vandalism of religious places is part of a larger nationwide conspiracy while demanding a judicial probe.
Cabral refusing to admit any lacunae in the police probe stated he would ask Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to hand over a copy of the chargesheet, once investigation into the cases is complete, to the Church. He added that if the team feels there are some gaps in the probe, it should write to the police department.
The MLA also slammed certain sections questioning the ability of the alleged accused to commit the crime single handedly considering his age. “When he was questioned, why he did not involve others, he said he was apprehensive about being exposed. He has confessed to the police and when he was taken to the crime scene as a part of the investigation, he climbed the fence and even walked on the narrow wall (of the Guardian Angel Cemetery). Some news channel has even telecast the video,” he said.
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I did not interrogate him: Cabral
Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral conceded he interacted with Francis Pereira but says he did not ‘interrogate’ him in custody.
“We (including Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar) just went to the PS to review the situation. I just wanted to see whether he (Pereira) had any remorse but he was instead proud. I did interact with him for 5-10 minutes at the time when he was being taken to the PS but did not interrogate him as it is the job of the police,” he told media persons in response to allegations that Cabral interfered with the investigation.
The MLA also saw the alleged weapon used to deface the shrines and said the hammer was small in size. “When I observed the hammer, it was small and that was enough to break a structure because it (the shrines) did not have any support,” he said.
