Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the House on Monday that a 26-year-old woman, identified as Ayesha, arrested by Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in Goa had come to the costal state to meet her parents.
In a joint operation between the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) and the Goa Police, a 26-year-old woman, identified as Ayesha, was arrested in Goa on charges related to religious conversion on Sunday.
The issue was raised during the ongoing monsoon session of the House by BJP MLA Premendra Shet and AAP MLA Cruz Silva through a calling attention motion.
The opposition benches including Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Goa Forward party MLA Vijai Sardesai, AAP MLAs Cruz Silva and Venzy Viegas, Congress MLAs Carlos Alvares Ferreira, Altone D’Cruz and Revolutionary Goans Party MLA Viresh Borkar demanded explanation from the chief minister over the matter.
Responding to the motion, the chief minister said that it was Goa police who helped Uttar Pradesh counterpart to arrest the accused who was found living at Old Goa (near Panaji).
He said that the accused was not the resident of Goa but had come to meet her parents. “Our investigation has revealed that she had studied outside and was not living in Goa,” Sawant said.
Sawant ruled out that there was intelligence failure, claiming that the state police have taken up intensive tenant verification.
He said that those who fail to file tenant verification forms would be booked as per the law.
When asked about the allegation of religious conversion against the accused by the opposition benches, the chief minister said that “the forceful conversions will not be tolerated in the state.”
Sawant said that the state government has banned activities of Popular Front of India in the state and registered cases against the concerned persons.
He said that it is time that Goa should come up with anti-conversion law. “ We had even noticed cases of Love Jihad in the state.There was denial about the presence of Love Jihad.But if you want, I can give you details of the cases later,” he said.
The chief minister said that local gram panchayats and Panch members should also cooperate with the police to identify people who are living in their areas.
