FACT FINDING COMMITTEE FORMED BY BJP

PANJIM: Even as Goa government is waiting for the Bombay high Court to assign a judge to investigate Bali violence, BJP has announced formation of a seven-member fact finding committee to probe the incident. BJP's Goa unit chief, Laxmikant Parsekar, told reporters on Sunday that the committee will reconstruct the events of May 25 at Bali village.

Two tribal leaders were burnt alive during an agitation for tribal community's demands at the village, as the locals clashed with agitators.  On government's part, Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava today said that authorities were yet to get response from the Bombay High Court, to the request to designate a judge for a probe.

BJP had set up fact-finding committee earlier too. Led by senior leader Faggansingh Kulaste, it submitted a report, which was discussed in BJP's National Executive meeting at Lucknow.  Parsekar said there were several new pieces of evidence which had not been considered in the first report. New committee comprises former Dy SP Santoba Desai, MLA Fransic D’Souza, Dr Wilfred Mesquita, Rajendra Arlekar, Govind Parwatkar, Narendra Sawaikar, Santoba Desai and Dr Venkatesh Prabhudesai.

Police probe was superficial and left out the main accused, Parsekar said. "During the cleaning of the building where both leaders were burnt, bones were found. This means that Manguesh Gaonkar was tortured, killed and his body was mutilated before he was thrown into the fire," Parsekar alleged. According to the magistrate's inquiry, police had been mute spectators to the killings at Bali. – PTI