Monserrate decries attack on Aires

Posted on 2008-10-15
PANAJI - The Education Minister, Mr Atanasio Monserrate who is in the eye of the storm over the recent happenings, on Tuesday said that he was shocked to learn about the dastardly attack on Mr Aires Rodrigues and condemned the same and demanded a thorough investigation in the matter so that the “Public will come to know the truth and the acts purported to my family would be once and for all cleared.”
“I am equally shocked and dismayed that an attempt is made to create an impression amidst the public that this assault is to silence Mr Aires from helping the German lady who is alleged to have made certain allegations against my son,” he said. He said that Mr Rodrigues is a socio-political activist who has been raising several public issues and in the course of such activities he was bound to have rubbed shoulders with several parties.
He said: “As my family has been his recent target, someone must have used this timing to settle old scores with him so that the whole blame game could be pushed on me and divert the police on the wrong path of investigation.” He said that Mr Rodrigues had confronted him on several issues in the past and he had always faced him with dignity, decorum and in accordance with the law and democratic norms.