Police to probe if Goa minister is sheltering rape accused
Oct 21st, 2008 | By Sindh Today | Category: World
Panaji, Oct 21 (IANS) The Goa police will probe a complaint from an
activist-lawyer that Education Minister Atanasio Monserrate’s son Rohit,
accused of raping a minor German girl, was being sheltered by a minister, Goa
Home Minister Ravi Naik said Tuesday.
Director General of Police B.S. Brar will enquire into the complaint made by
activist-lawyer Aires Rodrigues that Public Works Department Minster Churchill
Alemao was sheltering Rohit, who has been absconding for more than a week now.
‘I will ask the DGP to look into the complaint. I have also asked the police
department to conduct a daily briefing in this rape case to the media, as it is
a sensitive issue,’ Naik told IANS.
Earlier Tuesday, Aires Rodrigues, counsel for the victim’s mother Fadela Fuchs,
accused Alemao of harbouring Rohit.
‘We have received information that Alemao has sheltered Rohit in one of his
properties in south Goa,’ Rodrigues charged, adding he had already informed the
police about the same.
He said those Goa ministers who were siding with Monserrate on this issue were
now involved in a slander campaign against the victim.
‘Recent statements made by Alemao and Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira are in bad
taste,’ Aires claimed, adding that Sequeira’s statement, reported in the local
media, that ‘even if my son has done it, I would have defended him too’ was
unbecoming of a minister.
Rodrigues also cautioned the media and police against maligning the
14-year-old, who was already undergoing trauma.
Reacting to ‘police leaks’ to the media that the girl had a ‘psychiatric
history’, the lawyer said she had been under counselling for the last three
months only ‘after the Rohit episode’.
Responding to reports that Rohit’s mother Jennifer had sought time to respond
to the police summons, Rodrigues said the Monserrates were only buying time.
‘If they were innocent, they should have just come clean,’ he claimed.
The Goa police are facing criticism for a 12-day delay in registering a rape
offence against Rohit and the attack on Rodrigues on the night before he was to
meet senior police officials along with Fuchs.
This comes at a time the image of the state police is dented following
criticism about the way they handled the case of British teenager Scarlett
Keeling’s murder in February.
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