Curious case of Father Dias: Beer, ghost-busting, mystery, murder and a dead Goan priest

For now, the mortal remains of activist and Roman Catholic priest Fr. Bismarque Dias rest in the icy cavity of a morgue in a government hospital’s morgue. But outside, under the unusually scorching November sun, last week’s mysterious death of Bismarque, who was in the midst of organising a series of protests against controversial real estate projects here, has inflamed discourse in Goa’s agitated civil society, media and the political space. The jury is out on how the Roman Catholic priest could have met his end along the muddy fringes of the Mandovi river on 5 November, even as two news dailies are engaged in virtually a daily reportage war about the circumstances of his death. This, even as a whole spectrum of theories related to spiked drinks, torture and even ghost-busting leading to Bismarque’s mystery death are being animatedly discussed or just vehemently dissed. According to the police, Bismarque drowned somewhere in the intervening night of 5 and 6 November, when he allegedly went swimming after a bout of drinking with two male acquaintances, one of whom was a minor. The body was discovered on 7 November, washed up near a sluice gate at St Estevam, an island village where the priest hailed from, located 15 km from Panaji. This police premise, based on statements of the two witnesses and on a post mortem report, has been the most consistently trending issue in the state since the Louis Berger bribery scandal which broke some months back. Many claim it is ridden with flaws, while the police insist that the chronology of facts is still being verified. [caption id=“attachment_2512314” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Father Bismarque Dias. Screegrab from YouTube[/caption] In the recent past, Dias had participated in a series of civil society protests, most notable of which have been a series of musical protests along with a band of musicians, who through their songs, alleged scams and controversies in land-intensive projects ranging from a new greenfield airport, a golf course and an electronic city being conceived by the state government in Tuem, 45 km from Panaji. The manner in which Bismarque’s death has stirred and divided public opinion can be gauged from the way in which two English dailies, Herald and _The Goan Everyda_y, positioned their stories on 14 November. The lead paragraphs of the two investigative stories, both published prominently on the respective front pages a week after Bismarque’s death, are as diverse as they can get. The Herald starts its story backing the possibility that Bismarque was murdered, saying “In the second and concluding part of this ground reporting series, Herald traces every step of Father Bismarque’s movements on the last day/night of his life on November 5/6 to open the eyes of the government which is blind to another possible reality that the warrior priest may have been done to death”. The Goan Everyday on the other hand suggests that perhaps much is being made of a possible accidental drowning. Their story’s lead paragraph argues: “Even as attempts are being made to present the death of Bismarque Dias as a murder, a key detail in the autopsy report further strengthens the theory that he drowned”. According to Deputy Inspector General of Police V Renganathan, Bismarque, after drinking beer, had waded into the water to dispel the fear of ghosts, which his two companions had claimed haunt the very area where they had gone drinking. “They (the companions) said that area there is a ghost there and we do not want to go there. But he told them that nothing is there and then he went for swimming and they slept there. In the morning they did not find him and went to their house,” Renganathan said, adding that the sequence of events was built on the versions of witnesses, which were only taken on record and were in the process of being verified. “We are approaching the particular matter with an open mind,” he said. Bismarque’s activist colleague Sudeep Dalvi debunks the police account. “This ghost story is all humbug. Bismarque had better things to do and worry about than ghost-busting. He was also a very good swimmer,” Dalvi told Firstpost. Dalvi has been Bismarque’s aide for several years and campaigned for the latter in the 2012 state assembly elections, which the priest lost, but not dishonourably. While Dalvi insists he has seen a scar above Bismarque’s right eye, Renganathan claims the first post mortem report has revealed “no ante-mortem injuries”. On the insistence of the family a second post mortem has already been conducted by the results have been kept under wraps until the receipt of the viscera examination report. Until then Bismarque’s family has refused to conduct the burial of the mortal remains. “Until we are convinced there is a thorough and fair investigation we will not bury the body,” the deceased priest’s brother Mario Dias told Firstpost, also demanding a Crime Branch probe. The writer is the Goa correspondent for the Indo-Asian News Service