MARGAO: Margao Town Police, who on Wednesday took firm action in allowing the tiatr performance to continue with police protection after it was disrupted, registered offences against seven persons and others on Thursday.
A case has been filed against the accused for forming an unlawful assembly and disrupting the tiatr by threatening Francis De Tuem with dire consequences and further trespassing into the greenroom (changing room) of female artistes, thereby outraging their modesty.
Police registered offences under Sections 143, 354, 506 (ii), 451 read with Section 149 IPC against Franky D’Mello from Verna, Romtom alias Minguel from Nuvem, Remy from Nuvem, Terry Fernandes, Peter, Manuel and Valeirano Fernandes from Benaulim and others.
Police said there is a counter complaint filed by the accused regarding the alleged use of a gun by Francis and pointed out that after they had searched the artiste on Wednesday they had discovered that it was only a toy gun. See Edit on Pg 8.
This was the subject of the argument between Margao Police Inspector C L Patil and Nuvem MLA Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco who believes there is a need for further investigation on the use of the gun and alleges that as per the information he received it was a real gun.
Pacheco also stated that he was not around and came after he heard about the commotion and had nothing to do with what ensued in the auditorium. He said it was not fair to say the men were his supporters and said that it could have been his sympathisers and that he saw that there were people from Navelim and Raia and other areas as well.
He said that the allegations made against him by Tuem in his song were in bad taste and that people appreciated and knew the reason why he had gone to jail and that it was wrong to make such defamatory songs or statements against him. He added that he had asked the authorities to ban the video of the song and criticised the Margao Police Inspector for allowing Francis to sing the song.
Francis retorted and said they were free to file a defamation case against him but had no right to invade the stage and stop him from singing and criticised them from entering the greenroom where the female artistes were present.
Francis who filed a complaint with Margao police said this was unacceptable in a democratic country and said that when he began the first verse of his song, a group of 20-25 people jumped on stage and tried to attack him. Both Francis and Roseferns, director of the play Tuzo-I-Dis Yetolo, blamed Pacheco’s supporters for creating a ruckus and disrupting the show. Both pointed out that Francis has sung this song since the tiatr was released on November 6 and it has been well received.
It was only after the audience demanded that the show had to go on, a decision was taken to continue the show.
The accused in the case have filed a counter complaint requesting immediate action against the producer, director and singer of the song for defamation among other criminal charges.
