Man held for desecration of was brainwashed by Israeli jail mates: Goa CM

Goa Chief Minister said in the Assembly on Wednesday that 50-year-old Francis Pereira, who is being probed for desecrating a number of religious icons, including Catholic crosses and Hindu idols of worship was brainwashed by Israeli inmates while he was in the Aguada Central Jail.

“Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Veerappan were his idols,” Manohar Parrikar said in reply to a calling attention motion tabled by leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar.

“After contesting elections and losing them, I think he shot his opponent. He went to jail and in Aguada jail, he met some Israeli inmates. The Israelis convinced him that idol worship is not the correct thing. That all souls enter into these crosses, small temples and these souls do wrong things, and therefore should be released,” Mr. Parrikar said.

“After being released from jail, the first thing he did after coming back home is that he destroyed his altar and frames (with religious imagery). His role models now are Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, Veerappan,” Mr. Parrikar said giving information from the police investigation.

Pereira was arrested last week and police claim, that he is responsible for the number of desecrations across the state, some of which date back to 2003.

“His psyche was affected and in his mind he formed a particular line of action. After he was released in 2003, he started this (desecration) series single-handedly,” Mr. Parrikar said.

Responding to repeated doubts raised by Opposition MLAs earlier that such a large scale operation may not be possible single-handedly, Mr. Parrikar said, “Because he was doing it single-handedly, he was not caught. He was successful in some cases and unsuccessful in some,” Chief Minister said.

Earlier, Mr. Parrikar said that during the year 2017 till date, a total of 12 desecration cases have been reported at police stations in South Goa and 2 in North Goa.

During the interrogation, the accused has confessed to have committed all the 12 desecration cases recently reported within South Goa and he has so far shown 79 places of worship which he desecrated between 2003 to 2017, Mr. Parrikar said.

While lauding the police for a thorough job,the Chief Minister appreciated the people of Goa for maintaining calm and peace and allowing police to conduct proper investigation.