MARGAO
While the Goa police tried to run roughshod against the protesters at the Margao municipal square, the latter stood firm on holding the candlelight protest at the square on Saturday evening.
Margao Police station in-charge PI Sachin Narvekar and his men-in-uniform prevented the protesters from assembling at the Margao municipal garden footpath. Later when the protesters assembled on the side of the MMC building, the police stopped them from using a microphone.
That the police came well prepared to scuttle the candlelight protest became evident when a busload of them descended on the venue even before a single protester could make his presence felt. The police appeared determined to see that the protest does not take place on the garden footpath.
When Goencho Ekvott Convenor Creson Antao came and sat on a garden bench and was chatting with the media, PI Sachin came towards him and questioned him whether he was from the media. When Creson replied that he had come for the candlelight protest, PI Sachin told him he cannot sit or stand on the garden footpath. “I would have taken him in the police bus if I knew that he was not from the media,” PI Sachin told the scribes.
PI Sachin’s continuous cell phone feedback to his higher-ups indicated that the police officer was given a brief to ensure that the candlelight rally does not take place.
At one point of time, questions were raised whether the police would permit the candlelight protest to take place anywhere at the MMC square. It was only after Executive Magistrate, Gaurav Gaonkar, arrived at the place, that the protesters started their protest with speakers addressing the gathering, directing their tirade against the government and the police.
Initially, the speakers addressed the protesters without a microphone, but when they used a microphone with low decibel sound, PI Sachin and the Executive Magistrate came and directed them to stop using it. The police personnel also moved close to the protesters around the same time, apparently to force the organizers against using the microphone.
Undeterred by the police presence around them, the protesters continued their address, but minus the microphone, before they all descended on the MMC garden footpath for a protest march around the garden.
