Former RSS Goa chief absconding after FIR filed against his comments about Francis Xavier
The expelled Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader called for a DNA analysis of Xavier’s relics and said that he shouldn’t be referred to as ‘Goencho saib’.
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The former chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Goa, Subhash Velingkar, is absconding after the police registered a first information report against him on Friday for demanding a DNA analysis of Francis Xavier’s relics, reported The Indian Express quoting unidentified sources.
Velingkar, who was expelled from the Sangh in 2016, recently called for a “DNA test to verify the identity of the remains believed to be those of Saint Francis Xavier”. He also reiterated his claim, first made in 2022, that Xavier should not be referred to as “Goencho saib”, or Protector of Goa.
Xavier was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who arrived in Goa in 1542, when the state was a Portuguese colony. He died in 1552 near Guangdong, China. Revered as the patron saint of Goa, his relics are kept in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.
Velingkar has been at the forefront of a Hindutva campaign to replace Xavier’s legacy in the state with that of Parshuram, a warrior-saint from Hindu mythology.
The FIR against Velingkar was filed at on Thursday at North Goa’s Bicholim police station on a complaint by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Cruz Silva.
Velingkar was booked for a “maligning speech against Saint Francis Xavier outraging the religious feelings and insulting religious beliefs of complainant, entire class of...
