Panaji: Colva village remained tense on Tuesday
as protests over a CD purportedly portraying a local priest in
bad light snowballed into a major controversy even as the
maker of the CD maintained that the character depicted in not
the cleric concerned.
On the Christmas eve, a local panch member, Culvert
Gonsalves had released an audio CD which has songs accusing
the local parish priest of being in an live-in relationship.
It also accuses local MLA Fransisco Pacheco of bigamy.
Colva villagers today came out in support of the accused,
Fr Diago Fernandes, and demanded action against Gonsalves, who
is absconding since then.
A meeting sympathising with the priest turned into a
rally which later snowballed into violent protests.
An irate mob reportedly torched Gonsalves` shop and
ransacked his house.
They also staged road blockades demanding his arrest.
The protests which began this afternoon are still continuing
as the locals have assembled outside Colva police station
seeking Gonsalves` arrest.
Meanwhile, Gonsalves, who is in hiding, told PTI over the
phone, said the character mentioned in the audio CD is
not the priest.
"It is a fictitious character and priest is unnecessarily
dragging himself into a controversy," he said adding that by
acting like this, priest is admitting that he has committed a
similar sin," he said.
PTI
