In a shocking misuse of power, Shri Sandeep Vazarkar, Sarpanch of the Village Panchayat Socorro was unscrupulously arrested by the Mapusa police on the evening of December 29. The incident occurred soon after TMC’s massively successful bike rally, held at Porvorim. While the arrest was made citing an old case from 2019, TMC leaders called it out as vendetta politics.
Shri Sandeep Vazarkar who was the former Vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Porvorim unit, had recently resigned from the party and joined the Goa Trinamool Congress (TMC), a move that did not go down well with the BJP given the massive public support Shri Sandeep Vazarkar enjoys.
Suggesting that the arrest was nothing more than BJP resorting to its typical intimidation tactics, Smt Mahua Moitra said, ‘There was absolutely no reason to arrest him. This is an old case for which the investigation is going on, and he has thoroughly cooperated with the police every time they have called him.’
Smt Mahua Moitra who flagged off the unique bike rally yesterday, further noted that the success of the bike rally, which had close to 500 bikes (1100 youths) had rattled the BJP. ‘The resident MLA from there, Mr. Khaunte who has just joined the BJP obviously felt threatened at this massive show of power that Sandeep Vazarkar and TMC were making on the ground, so the arrest was made just in order to intimidate him’, she stated.
Soon after his arrest, TMC leaders Smt Mahua Moitra and Shri Kiran Kandolkar left for the Mapusa police station and obtained the night bail for Shri Sandeep Vazarkar. Shri Sandeep Vazarkar was released after close to 7 hours of harassment.
TMC condemns vendetta politics by the BJP and maintains that the party will not buckle under pressure, and will continue to be the voice of Goa.
