CM intervention Sought in Chargesheet of Goan Christians

Velim: A former Goa minister has sought state Chief Minister Laximikant Parsekar's intervention in a three-year-old church case where two Catholic priests and 20 villagers are chargesheeted.

On Wednesday, in a memorandum to the chief minister, former water resource minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues noted that former chief minister and current federal defense minister Manohar Parrikar, wanted the case closed.

A purported raid in February 2012 was conducted on the parish priest of Velim church by the income tax and district collector, yielded no incriminating evidence against the priest. However the timing of the raid was more then a mere coincidence given the assembly elections were being held in the region.

It was only with the intervention of the Church authorities under the leadership of Fr Lucio Dias that the village returned to normalcy.

According to Rodrigues, the situation went out of control after attempts by the priest to pacify the crowd failed and in the confusion members of the public and police suffered injuries. Afterwards, the Cuncolim police filed a chargesheet against two priests and 20 villagers.

He further pointed out that it is a matter of surprise that no action has been taken against the police and no inquiry has been held as to why the police raided the church so late in the night during election time. He said that innocent people have been unnecessarily framed and implicated in the charge sheet, including the parish priest and Episcopal vicar while actual culprits, the police, who created the scenario by their ill-advised raid on the church have been left scot-free.