MARGAO
The Aam Aadmi Party escalated the issue of the assault on its working president and Chinchinim sarpanch Gerson Gomes on Tuesday by staging a sit-in at the lock-up of the Cuncolim police station to demand the arrest of Malcom Pereira.
Earlier in the day, AAP leaders led by Goa president Valmiki Naik, senior vice-president Sandesh Teleikar-Dessai, MLA Cruz Silva, vice-president Manuel Cardozo, Sunil Signapurkar and other AAP leaders and citizens stormed the Chinchinim-Deussa Panchayat to demand that the secretary file an official complaint against Malcom Pereira for the assault on Gomes.
Incidentally, while the Panchayat lodged a complaint signed by the Panchayat secretary and members against Malcom later in the day, a group of party leaders led by MLAs Cruz Silva and Venzy Viegas, along with Valmiki Naik, Prashant Naik and others, staged a sit-in at the Cuncolim police lock-up. They told the media they had been forced to resort to the sit-in agitation since the police had failed to arrest Malcom in the case.
Cuncolim police station in-charge, PI Diego Gracias, however, pointed out that the police had already registered an FIR against Malcom based on the complaint lodged by sarpanch Gerson Gomes. He said the accused could not be arrested since the punishment for preventing a public servant while discharging duties is less than seven years.
PI Diego, however, said that the police had already sent a notice to Malcom to visit the police station on Wednesday in connection with the ongoing investigations.
Earlier in the day, AAP leaders led by Velim MLA Cruz Silva confronted the Panchayat secretary for ignoring the threats received by the Chinchinim sarpanch in recent days. He accused the Panchayat secretary of acting at the behest of senior BJP leaders.
AAP senior vice-president Sandesh Teleikar-Dessai stated that it seemed the authorities were conniving with the accused, which was why it took AAP and villagers' intervention to get the secretary to finally file a complaint.
