Team Herald
PANJIM: In police custody for allegedly raping and buying a 16-year-old girl, St Cruz MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate has accused the victim of creating an imaginary story against him in a bid to take revenge.
In his bail application filed before the Children’s Court, the MLA through his counsel Rajeev Gomes submitted that the victim was upset with him for terminating her job within a month of being recruited as a sales girl in a lifestyle firm he owns at Miramar. Her salary had been fixed at Rs 8,000 per month.
“I was introduced to the minor girl in the second week of February 2016, on the plea that she was in need of a job. I referred her to my manager in charge of one of the establishments at Miramar where her services were engaged as a sales girl. The alleged minor worked as such from February 16 to March 18 on which I ordered that her services be terminated as it was reported to me that she had stolen cash from the cash counter,” he said.
Monserrate’s seven-page bail plea further revealed that the ex-employee had even confessed to Dilip Demu Dias and Shabira Attar of stealing the money. “…She was visibly unhappy about her removal and was heard cursing me for her removal and vowing to teach me a lesson,” he added, claiming innocence.
“All the allegations made against me are false, and the alleged minor girl has come up with an imaginary story of indirectly suggesting that she was drugged and abused at my farmhouse in Taleigao. I could never have met her or been in her company either on the March 6 and 8 because the said days were the election and counting days, respectively, of the recently concluded Panjim Municipal Corporation elections, in which I was busy on the streets with my friends, supporters and the candidates, from early morning to late night.”
“Police have falsely applied penal offences to the case, which are not attracted at all to the facts. The sections have been fraudulently applied pursuant to the political conspiracy against me,” he added.
Seeking bail, the unattached MLA stated that hehas always been serving the people and offering his services to them at all times. However, since his incarceration, he has not been able to reach and serve his constituents and the people of Goa. “Set me at liberty in order to ably represent my constituency in the forthcoming Assembly Session in the month June-July 2016,” he said.
