PANAJI: In an incident that is bizarre to say the least and on the heels of desecration of various religious places, the graveyard of the sleepy island village of Divar was vandalised on Friday, niches broken into, nine grave crosses interchanged and skulls removed from the well into which the bones are disposed off after the mandatory four years, police and locals said.

The nine skulls were removed and neatly arranged outside some houses; six of the skulls were kept in front of one person’s house, two near the post office and one on the entrance of the park next to the graveyard.
An offence has been registered at the Old Goa police station on a complaint filed by Mr Cajetan Silveira, outside whose house some of the skulls were placed. The police have arrested three teenagers including a minor for the crime registered under Section 295-A, 427 of the IPC.
“We are very sad and disturbed about the incident,” the parish priest, Fr Anil Kumar said expressing his anguish at the dastardly deed. The other priests in the church too expressed their regret that such an incident had taken place. “It hurts the religious sentiments of the people. What has happened is very wrong. It is a very sad incident,” the church curate told the media. “It is extremely sad. This should not have happened. Such incidents will hurt the religious sentiments of the people. Some things have to be kept sacred,” Mr Santosh Parsekar from Malar-Divar told the media, referring to the action by the teenagers.
Police said that during the investigation, locals informed that some boys were moving suspiciously during odd hours at night and gave their names. After rounding up some suspects, during the interrogation, one 19-year-old Terence Gonsalves confessed to have committed the above crime along with Jeffrey D’Costa, 18 years, and one 15-year-old, all residents of Diwar.
Their grouse was that on two or three occasions the complainant had scolded Terence for moving about at odd hours, misbehaving and smoking and drinking. Terence is from a relatively well off family and his father is working abroad, while his mother is in Mumbai and his aunt takes care of him. Officials and locals said that there is a park near the cemetery and young boys are seen there drinking and smoking during the late night hours as they are not allowed to do so at home.