MARGAO
The First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Maina-Curtorim police station is one of the three cases slapped against the anti-coal and track doubling protesters by the men-in-uniform in the month of November.
While the Maina Curtorim police had registered a case of unlawful assembly against the protesters for the November 1-2 midnight vigil at Chandor, the Railway Protection Force, Vasco, had registered an FIR against unknown group of protesters for trespassing and obstructing government servants at Davorlim.
This was soon followed by another FIR, the third FIR against the anti-coal protesters, this time by the Konkan Railway Police station against 15 women and others at Davorlim following a complaint lodged by the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd.
As far as the Chandor midnight vigil staged by the anti-coal protesters on the intervening night of November 1-2 is concerned, the Maina Curtorim police had alleged that the protesters had formed an unlawful assembly during the protest. The activists, however had hotly contested the police charge, pointing out there was no question of forming an unlawful assembly on the road when the South Goa district Collector Ajit Roy had closed the road on both sides of the Chandor level crossing to facilitate the railways to lay the railway track.
That’s not all. Activist Sandesh Talekar insists that the railway authorities did not take any cognizance of the protest on November 1-2 at Chandor, wondering whether the Goa police has encroached on the jurisdiction of the railway police.
Incidentally, the Konkan railway police had registered an FIR against 19 persons, including 15 women and four men, for trespass on the railway tracks at Davorlim, besides offenses of theft and intimidation.
The FIR was registered on November 19 on the basis of a complaint lodged by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd officer Avinash G, who alleged that the protesters formed an unlawful assembly and trespassed on the railway track at Davorlim where the work was underway.
The complaint had further stated that the group of persons stopped the railway construction work by threatening the labourers and forcing them to leave the site. They were accused of snatching crow bars from the workers and emptying 40 litres of anti-corrosive paint from cans thereby causing damage to the tune of Rs five lakh.
