Panaji: Five days after two tribals were
killed in violence in Balli village over the demand for
implementation of reservation in government jobs, the
community members on Monday agreed to take custody of the dead
bodies.
Prakash Velip, president of United Tribals
Associations Alliance (UTAA), which is spearheading the
agitation in the state, told reporters that the funeral of the
bodies will be held in the evening.
Earlier, the postmortem on both the bodies was
conducted at Goa Medical College and hospital here.
Two protesters Manguesh Gaonkar and Dilip Velip were
burnt alive allegedly by a mob at a cashew factory in Balli
village on May 25 following the violence over tribals' demand
for implementing reservation in government jobs in the state
among others.
The tribals refused to take possession of the bodies
demanding immediate arrest of the accused.
Hundreds of tribals, who had gathered at Azad Maidan
in Panaji today, demanded suspension of Superintendent of
Police Atmaram Deshpande, who had claimed that tribals went
berserk after consuming alcohol on the day of agitation.
Deshpande had said in a press note that 'many of the
people in the crowd were drunk while some were about to get
drunk'.
Meanwhile, the tribals also expressed anguish over
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat not obliging his commitments of
suspending South Goa collector Gokuldas Naik, launching a
judicial probe into the violence and that of arresting the
culprits behind the killings.
"Nothing has happened (since the CM's assurance on
Saturday). Police enquiry is going at such a slow pace that
they have not arrested anyone," Velip told reporters adding
that UTAA will decide its future course of action only after
conducting funeral of the bodies.
PTI
First Published: Monday, May 30, 2011, 19:23