Ilidio Costa was an active member of the Azad Gomantak Dal and Goa Liberation Army.
PANAJI
The 96-year-old freedom fighter from Goa, Ilidio Francisco Do Carmo Costa passed away peacefully at a hospital in Miramar and was cremated at the St Inez Crematorium on Monday.
The cremation was followed by a short prayer with his SGI Buddhist Community at his residence at Caranzalem. Ilidio is survived by his youngest son Ravi Costa and sister Lira Pimenta, who lives in the USA.
Born in Goa to late Antonio Caetano Naziazeno Da Costa and late Maria Elvira Pimenta Rebello E Costa, Ilidio was married to late Alda Clarissa Conceicao Da Costa and the couple had three children late Indira Douglas, late Dilip Costa and the youngest, Ravi Costa.
At a very young age, he plunged into the freedom struggle movement. An active member of the Azad Gomantak Dal and the Goa Liberation Army, Ilidio participated in the clandestine underground violent activities and was arrested. During his detention, he suffered inhuman treatment. He was put behind bars at Aguada jail for over three years. And when released he and his colleague Ernesto Costa Frias were awarded Tamarapatra.
After he was released from jail, on June 18 June, 1959 Ilidio married his girlfriend Alda Costa, sister of another freedom fighter Fabiao da Costa. Together, the couple moved to Bombay and from there to Zanzibar, where his in-laws lived. From there, the couple migrated to Santos in the State of S Paulo, Brazil. Ilidio migrated to Brazil in the early 1960s as his parents were already there, having sold their Altinho house to Dayanand Bandodkar, who later became the first Chief Minister of Goa. Ilidio’s father had a timber and mining business in Goa.
Ilidio took up a job with a shipping company. He was transferred to Tokyo in charge of the company where he worked for 15 years. On retirement, he settled in his beloved Goa in the 1980s. Alda died in 2013 after a prolonged illness.
Recently, Ilidio was awarded the Certificate of Honour for his patriotism, bravery and valour in Goa’s freedom struggle by the Government of Goa on June 18, 2023, on India’s 75th year of Independence and Goa Revolution Day at the hands of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Ilidio did his studies in Belgaum, where he received a diploma in teachers' training. An avid reader, Ilidio was fond of books. He used to purchase books from time to time and remained active till his last in Goa.
