Church fact-finding team demands an impartial investigation as suspicion grows about a police cover-up.
Panaji:
Seven months after police in Goa arrested a Catholic for desecrating graveyards and crosses, a court has acquitted him in 11 of 19 cases, vindicating the church's claim that police framed him to cover up an orchestrated attack.
Police in the western Indian state had claimed 56-year-old Francis Xavier Pereira was "a radicalized former convict" who since 2003 had vandalized 150 religious structures. They also said he was mentally unstable and seeking publicity through vandalism.
Police charged him with 19 cases and the court acquitted him in 11, said Father Savio Fernandes, director of the Diocesan Centre for Social Justice and Peace, who earlier led a fact-finding team that dismissed police claims about Pereira.
"The fact-finding team sticks to its earlier demand for an impartial investigation into the desecration of the crosses," Father Fernandes told ucanews.com on Feb. 20.
As some cases against Pereira are sub judice in other courts, the fact-finding team will not make any other comments, he said.
Some 50 crosses have been destroyed since June 2017 in Catholic strongholds in the southern part of Goa, a former Portuguese colony.
Church leaders suspect the vandalism aimed to divide Christians and Hindus in the state, where the government is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Father Fernandes' comment came after Pereira told media that police took him from a road to a police station and forced him to admit at gunpoint to having carried out the desecration.
He claimed senior police officers, local legislators and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar arrived at the police station and directed him to confess to the cases.
"Parrikar said he was under pressure from Center [New Delhi] to nab the culprit and ordered me to accept the cases. He promised my nephew a government job and money to me. He also promised that the courts would release me in two or three months," Pereira was quoted as saying.
Police Inspector Rajendra Prabhudessai countered that other officers were present during Pereira's video-recorded confession.
Pereira is accused of desecrating crosses and graveyards in 158 places but only 56 cases were filed and only 19 were charge-sheeted and brought to court, the officer said.
The church fact-finding team last July dismissed the arrest of Pereira, saying police were "following a familiar script" across the country "to pacify civil society … and divert attention from the actual perpetrators."
The obvious reference was to the increasing number of Hindu attacks on Christians since the BJP came to power in 2014 with the support of pro-Hindu groups who want to turn India a Hindu-only state.
"It was clear that a game was on because the arrested man is over 55. Not even a 25 year old would able to commit such monumental destruction in a single night. It had to be a collective effort," said Father Loiola Pereira, secretary to Archbishop Felip Neri Ferrao of Goa.
Chandrakant Kavlekar, opposition leader in Goa's legislative house, told the house that the acquittals of Pereira had raised apprehension in Goan people who wanted to know who was behind such crimes.
"Of the 19 cases where he was charge-sheeted, he has been acquitted in 11 cases. What does this indicate? There is someone else behind this entire scene," Kavlekar said.
Source: UCAN
Police in the western Indian state had claimed 56-year-old Francis Xavier Pereira was "a radicalized former convict" who since 2003 had vandalized 150 religious structures. They also said he was mentally unstable and seeking publicity through vandalism.
Police charged him with 19 cases and the court acquitted him in 11, said Father Savio Fernandes, director of the Diocesan Centre for Social Justice and Peace, who earlier led a fact-finding team that dismissed police claims about Pereira.
"The fact-finding team sticks to its earlier demand for an impartial investigation into the desecration of the crosses," Father Fernandes told ucanews.com on Feb. 20.
As some cases against Pereira are sub judice in other courts, the fact-finding team will not make any other comments, he said.
Some 50 crosses have been destroyed since June 2017 in Catholic strongholds in the southern part of Goa, a former Portuguese colony.
Church leaders suspect the vandalism aimed to divide Christians and Hindus in the state, where the government is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Father Fernandes' comment came after Pereira told media that police took him from a road to a police station and forced him to admit at gunpoint to having carried out the desecration.
He claimed senior police officers, local legislators and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar arrived at the police station and directed him to confess to the cases.
"Parrikar said he was under pressure from Center [New Delhi] to nab the culprit and ordered me to accept the cases. He promised my nephew a government job and money to me. He also promised that the courts would release me in two or three months," Pereira was quoted as saying.
Police Inspector Rajendra Prabhudessai countered that other officers were present during Pereira's video-recorded confession.
Pereira is accused of desecrating crosses and graveyards in 158 places but only 56 cases were filed and only 19 were charge-sheeted and brought to court, the officer said.
The church fact-finding team last July dismissed the arrest of Pereira, saying police were "following a familiar script" across the country "to pacify civil society … and divert attention from the actual perpetrators."
The obvious reference was to the increasing number of Hindu attacks on Christians since the BJP came to power in 2014 with the support of pro-Hindu groups who want to turn India a Hindu-only state.
"It was clear that a game was on because the arrested man is over 55. Not even a 25 year old would able to commit such monumental destruction in a single night. It had to be a collective effort," said Father Loiola Pereira, secretary to Archbishop Felip Neri Ferrao of Goa.
Chandrakant Kavlekar, opposition leader in Goa's legislative house, told the house that the acquittals of Pereira had raised apprehension in Goan people who wanted to know who was behind such crimes.
"Of the 19 cases where he was charge-sheeted, he has been acquitted in 11 cases. What does this indicate? There is someone else behind this entire scene," Kavlekar said.
Source: UCAN
http://india.ucanews.com/news/probe-call-as-court-acquits-accused-in-goa-cross-vandalism/36675/daily
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