Police collecting evidence on desecration cases

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2008-11-20
PANAJI- The Goa police are quite hopeful of making breakthrough into the cases of desecration of religious places that have been on the rise in Goa.
Speaking to 'The Navhind Times', the deputy superintendent of police, Mr Chandrakant Salgaonkar said the police are in the process of collecting evidence on the desecration cases so as to bring the culprits to book.
"We are on the right track and working in the right direction, and are hopeful of achieving breakthrough (into the desecrations of religious places) soon," he said.
Speaking about the possible reasons for rising cases of desecration in the state, he said there could be many motives. One reason could be that the miscreants wanted to divide the religious communities living in peace for centuries together.
Or they were motivated to get sympathy from the people, besides seeking protection for their illegalities by diverting the attention.
This year, so far 13 incidents of desecration of religious places of different religions have taken place in the state. Nine Hindu temples, three Christian crosses and a Muslim dargah have been desecrated.
Last year, there were six incidents of desecration. Three Hindu temples and three Christian crosses were desecrated.
In 2006, four Hindu temples and three Christian crosses were vandalised.
On the desecration of the Sateri Pissai temple, he said the police and the miscreants came face-to-face. However, the miscreants managed to escape in the jungle in the night. The police have recovered the tools used for desecration, Mr Salgaonkar added.
The DySP observed that the police cannot provide security to every temple, ghumti, cross, church, mosque and dargah. When the police started surveillance in South Goa the miscreants started targeting religious places in North Goa.