50-year-old taxi driver held for series of Goa desecration

In a breakthrough, the Goa Police on Saturday arrested a 50-year-old taxi driver in connection with the series of religious desecration across the state, in which several dozen crosses and some places of Hindu worship have also been vandalized.

The accused Francis Pereira was arrested while he was proceeding to damage a cross in the South Goa district, Superintendent of Police (South Goa) Arvind Gawas said.

“The accused has been arrested along with implements with which he used to desecrate religious places of worship,” Gawas said.

Soon after the arrest, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar along with other MLAs rushed to the Curchorem police station, where the accused is being held.

Police said that Pereira was “mentally unstable” and in a confessional video, has said that Catholic crosses were vandalised because “he wanted the souls trapped in them to be liberated”.

Over the last few weeks, a series of desecration, including a mass desecration at the Guardian Angel Catholic cemetery located in the Curchorem, had rocked the state forcing CM Manohar Parrikar to claim that malicious efforts were being made to disturb the communal harmony in Goa.