Church Attack: Cabinet Approval to Withdraw Cases Against Christians Soon
Daijiworld Media Network
Mangalore, Jul 17: Ronald Colaco, chairman of International Federation of Karnataka Christian Association (IFKCA) led a delegation of Association members along with other Christian leaders like Valerian Fernandes, Felix D'Souza, Clifford Mascarenhas and IFKCA state convener Denis D'Silva to meet the state home minister R Ashok recently.
The delegation wanted to know the progress made by the state government in withdrawing the cases filed against Christian youth following the church attacks two years back. This is the second IFKCA delegation led by Colaco to meet the home minister, following the earlier delegation of February 15, 2011, urging the minister to withdraw these cases.
The home minister apprised the delegation that the government has already taken a decision to withdraw the cases and a cabinet approval for the same is on the anvil. He also told the delegation that he has directed the police stations concerned to send details of the cases to the DGP and IGP of state to enable them to take necessary action. The home minister also instructed his special officer Kempe Gowda to keep a track of file movements of the cases pertaining to the youth as per the procedure, from respective local police stations to the SP/commissioner’s office to DGP, IGP to home secretary and finally the approval of the cabinet.
The members met special officer Kempe Gowda who got in touch with the police commissioner of Mangalore within no time and informed him about the directive of the home minister to report immediately to him and inform him about the progress made in sending the files immediately to the office of DGP and IGP to speed up the process.
The delegation also met higher education minister and former home minister Dr V S Acharya and requested him to ensure cabinet approval to release the youth. Colaco explained to the minister and the officials concerned about the hardships faced by the youth due to the pending cases against them. He told the minister that the action of the youth was nothing but an emotional outburst following the attack on churches. He also explained that the youth were finding it difficult to pursue higher education, obtain passport to go abroad for a better career or to take up employment even at local levels, due to pending criminal cases against them.
They also met additional secretary to the government and private secretary of the chief minister Dayashankar, who nominated one of his officials to keep a track on the developments at every stage and report back to him about the progress made every three days.
With a view to get early relief to the unfortunate youth against whom cases have been registered, IFKCA chairman Ronald Colaco has appointed IFKCA state convener Denis D'Silva, Michael Baptist, Joseph Lobo and K Stanly as committee members to take necessary follow up action. These members are now trying to ensure that the files pertaining to these youth get moving at every stage to avoid undue delay so that they can dispense justice and get them early relief.
State convenor of IFKCA Denis D'Silva says that unless the case is pursued with due urgency the efforts of IFKCA would become futile and therefore they have been following the case with renewed vigour.