Overview
- Police registered an FIR Sunday night at Vasco under BNS sections 299 and 196 after a viral video showed Gautam Khattar making derogatory remarks about St Francis Xavier at a Vasco event.
- The Crime Branch now leads the investigation, and officers who say Khattar is untraceable have visited his Dehradun address and issued a summons.
- Authorities are preparing a Look Out Circular to stop him from leaving India, a standard alert that flags wanted persons to immigration at airports and borders.
- The event’s organisers apologised and said the privately arranged programme tried to halt the speech, and the chief minister later said Minister Mauvin Godinho should have intervened on stage.
- Public pressure has grown through complaints filed across multiple police stations and a Church statement seeking exemplary action, reviving criticism of a 2024 case that many in Goa felt was handled too softly.