PANJIM: The Children’s Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to one John Monteiro, charged with allegedly raping a girl for the last one decade since she attained the age of 16. The Pernem-based entrepreneur has been accused of having intimate relations with the victim, now aged 27 years, on the pretext of marrying her.
During arguments, the petitioner, through his counsel Swapnil Nasnolkar, denied the charges claiming he has been married to another woman since 2009 and that the victim had been harassing his wife asking her to divorce him. “His wife had even filed a complaint against the victim for harassing her with phone calls and messages. The printouts of the text messages are also produced before the court,” the defence argued.
Nasnolkar said the victim’s family had even attended Monteiro’s wedding. “It is only since August 2015 that the victim is calling her (Monteiro’s wife) from different mobile numbers and forcing her to divorce him,” he said, adding his client has been falsely implicated.
The prosecution led by PP K Sanzgiri submitted that the accused was absconding and efforts were made to trace him.
