Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Award-winning actress Marianne Borgo fled her home in Calangute, Goa, in the dead of night after “feeling terrified” at the end of an 11-day-long blockade of her gate by the widow of the man she bought the house from years ago.
The widow Nirmala Sousa had deployed her sister and several private security who had driven a jeep in to block the driveway and locked the gate, restricting entry to everyone, even the police, at times. Electricity, water and eventually gas was also cut off, making it impossible to remain in the house.
“This is not Modi’s Idea of India. He has been working all over the world to create a positive tourism-friendly image, but the recent events have left me disappointed as I feel the achievements are not able to reach the state level here in Goa,” she said.
Borgo was hoping the court would help her after having filed a case for an injunction in trial court around a year ago, but the decision did not go her way.
This left her vulnerable, more so after she refused a proposal from Nirmala Sousa to buy her silence and to move out in 3 or 15 days. The 75-year-old Borgo also said she could not remain any longer without a proper bath, and her health deteriorating due to these circumstances.
Borgo added that her computer iPad was stolen, but even after providing CCTV footage and filing an FIR, it was not returned to her. She locks her doors but expects that the rest of her valuables will also be taken now that she has left. Her neighbours provided her refuge after she “couldn’t take the harassment any longer”.
Marianne Borgo (born Chicherio) says she bought the house in 2008 from a lawyer Francisco Sousa, now deceased. After Sousa’s demise of Covid symptoms in 2021, his widow Nirmala Sousa started harassing her, frequently trying to repossess the house, even while the case was in court. On January 23, Sousa’s sister Gaya and six private security guards blocked the exit gate with a jeep and restricted entry to anyone except a domestic maid.
Marianne Borgo is a French actor, trained at the Centre d’Arte Dramatique and the Conservatoire National d’Arte Dramatique. She has worked extensively in film, television and theatre across Europe and India. Her credits include the original The Bourne Identity, A Little Princess, and the Franco-American rom-com/drama Le Divorce alongside Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Stephen Fry.
She was a recurring character in the French thriller series Profilage and most recently led in the Indian production Danny Goes Aum. She has just completed photography on a new TV film for 2023.
