Pune police provide protection to Jesuit priest after his office was ransacked

The Cantonment police have provided protection to the 74-year-old Jesuit priest, Father Walter Albert Saldhana, following the ransacking of his office on Sunday evening.

Senior inspector Sushma Chavan said the move was taken to prevent any further attacks. On Sunday evening, a group ransacked the office of the priest, who is director of Stephen Nivas, a hostel for college students on St Vincent’s Street in Camp area.

They thought the priest was responsible for the sudden snapping of connection of a water pipeline by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), following which the local mosque stopped getting water.

The misunderstanding cropped up due to an application filed under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005, by resident, Rashad Shaikh, on the issue. Shaikh, who had good relations with the priest, wanted details about the water supply in the area since he was receiving heavy water bills.

After the application was filed, some PMC officials visited the spot 15 days ago and cut the water supply as the connections were illegal. They were unaware that the supply from the pipe went to the mosque.

On Monday, Shaikh withdrew his RTI application and filed two written complaints: one to the PMC’s superintendent of water supply and the other to the Cantonment police to ascertain the PMC officers responsible for divulging his name for filing the application. The incident took place when he and Shaikh were having a meeting at his hostel office.