Fr Bismarque Dias went missing on November 5 from Babol Manos (sluice gate) wherefrom the body was fished out from river on November 7.

Old Goa Police initially investigated the case but failed to register it as a murder despite a complaint was lodged by family members on the same day. It was also shocking that the same police station, which had three complaints filed by Fr Bismarque prior to his death against some known people whom he had got threat from, didn’t register the case of murder.

However, with mounting pressure from civil society groups, NGOs and media, the government transferred the investigation to crime branch that concluded the death as unnatural and due to drowning.

Crime Branch investigated the case under section 174 CrPc on the order on Sub Divisional Magistrate. The Crime Branch quizzed approximately 60 witnesses and recorded their statements. CB has stated that each and every allegation, each and every name alleged by the family, friends and activists has not only been verified but also have put on record with their statements.

The CB report includes report of both the post-mortems, Viscera report, DNA profiling, Diatom test report, lie detector test attempts and the CDR.

CB has said that CFSL Gandhinagar has refused to conduct the lie detector test on one of the prime witness who was allowed by court to conduct the test on the grounds of mental heuristic of the witness. The second prime witness was not allowed for lie detector test by JJB.