PANAJI
After a high voltage drama during the site demarcation and two First Information Reports (FIRs) against over a dozen villagers, the law and order situation in Sanguem is back to normal, at least as of now. But the authorities, taking no chance, have retained Section 144 of the code of criminal procedure considering that farmers of Cotarli ward and Molcornem village are still opposing the IIT project at the site. The villagers have clarified that while they are not opposing the educational institution, they demand to shift the venue from the forested hill touching the two talukas “ Quepem and Sanguem.
“The district administration and the district police have decided to retain Section 144 CrPC… Days after the tense situation, the officials of the Directorate of Settlement & Land Records inspected the survey numbers amid tight police security. It is now the turn of an outstation team of IIT experts to inspect the site,” police sources said while speaking to The Goan on the development.
The policemen continue to patrol these survey numbers to ensure peace and tranquillity. “We have posted some policemen at the site where the Section 144 CrPC is imposed,” the source revealed.
In the first FIR, four persons are booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation), and 504 (intentional insult with the intention to provoke breach of peace) among other sections of the Indian Penal Code while the second FIR has over 8-9 persons booked for rioting, causing hurt and other offences of the IPC. No person is arrested even as the persons named in the FIR are being quizzed for investigation.
