Mauvin Godinho is targeted by people with vested interests: Shreha Dhargalkar

PANAJI: Speaking to this reporter on phone from Goa, social activist and women’s rights worker from the coastal state, alleged that Minister Mauvin Godinho is being targeted by powerful people with vested interests.

“I have said this earlier and I am saying this now. There are some former Congressmen MLAs in Goa who joined the BJP in the hope of getting ministries. It’s been over a year now and none of them have not got anything. These are the people who are targeting Mauvin Godinho so that if he resigns as a minister, they will be able to get those portfolios. There was no sex scandal, nothing. It was all “created” by these vested interests who want to dethrone Godinho so that they get a chance in the Cabinet,” Shreha said, alleging that a sinister plot to target Godinho was hatched by some very senior former Congress MLAs who had joined the BJP.

It may be recalled that the office of Goa minister Mauvin Godinho had lodged a police complaint over a “derogatory” and “false” message being circulated along with photographs on social media linking his name to a woman deputy sarpanch of a village in the state. This happened about two weeks ago.

The minister’s personal secretary Nehal Damodar Keni had lodged the complaint at the Vasco police station.

The complaint claimed that a derogatory and false message was being widely circulated on social media platforms  along with photographs of Godinho with a woman deputy sarpanch of a village in the Dabolim constituency from which he hails.

Godinho, who belongs to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), represents the Dabolim assembly segment. He handles the Transport and Panchayat ministries and also represents Goa on the national GST committee.

The complaint said, “The message is being circulated along with publicly available photographs of Godinho, thereby creating a wrong and erroneous impression to the readers about the attribution of the said message and photographs to Godinho.” Keni said in the complaint that based on the message and the photographs, some unidentified persons have also created video.

“Certain politicians have also attempted to capitalise on this grossly wrong and erroneous impression created by the message to create unrest and derive political mileage out of this patently illegal and mischievous message,” the complaint said.

According to Shreha, the entire episode was “staged” by some powerful politicians who wanted Godinho to resign and in the hope that the vacated portfolios would be handed over to them. “They had some information which was twisted and turned and a new narrative was created to put Godinho in the dock,” she claimed.