PONDA
Speaking to The Goan, Erasmo Aguiar, attorney of Fatima Chapel, said they had inspected the cemetery five days back and nothing such was noticed. "On Tuesday, one man had gone to the cemetery to offer prayers at the grave of his wife, who was buried recently. However, the man was shocked to see all the crosses removed from the graves," Aguiar informed.
The cemetery is about 150 metres away from the chapel on the hill and there are no houses nearby and hence
nobody came to know about the incident.
Two poles of the shed in the cemetery were also found damaged and were lying on the ground.
The miscreants entered the cemetery by breaking the steel gate.
The cemetery, which has six graves, is used by the Christian community from Gawane, Dhakone and Karanjal. Some niches on the walls were also found damaged.
People who gathered at the cemetery were heard discussing the arrest of Francis Pereira in similar cases of desecrations and claimed that if he was the lone accused in such crimes, as was being made out by the police and politicians, how could the incident have taken place in their area when he is behind bars.
Police Sub Inspector Arun Bakre rushed to the site and conducted the panchanama.
Pereira was then taken to the Ponda police station late Tuesday evening and was interrogated by Ponda police in connection with the desecration of crosses at Marcaim.
Later at night, DySP Sammy Tavares and Curchorem PI Shivram Vaiganker took Pereira to the cemetery at Marcaim.
