Desecrations seem to be 'solo act': Parrikar

The desecration of religious symbols which took place over the last fortnight in Goa appear to be "a solo act", Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said today following the arrest of a man in the case.
He said even after the arrest, police would continue vigil in places of worship.
"As of now it (series of desecrations) appears to be a solo act. But we can't totally rule out involvement of others... Or it need not be a participatory involvement but support of different kind," Parrikar told reporters in Vasco.
The Goa police has arrested a 50-year-old man in connection with the alleged desecration of holy crosses in South Goa district.

The accused, Francis Pereira, had told the police that he "casually" vandalised 12 crosses over the last fortnight with no intention to create an enmity, a senior police officer said.
The Christian religious symbol in at least 12 places and a temple had been vandalised in the South Goa district since July 1.

"As the chief minister and home minister, I was very confident that we will crack it (the cases)," Parrikar said.
"We were going in a very scientific way. We have done a lot of data mining, used technology, as well as many other techniques which normally an investigation agency uses," he said.

On why he was not favouring a CBI inquiry into these cases, Parrikar said, "It (CBI) is not a policing agency, it is an investigation agency and this (desecration cases) required policing."
"You require to track movement of vehicles. All those aspects we have taken into consideration during the current investigation," the chief minister said.
"We have also taken into consideration which were the vehicles near desecration site visiting every day. All this data was mined and properly analysed," he said.