WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The opposition Congress on Tuesday alleged that a minister in the BJP-led government had sexually exploited a woman by misusing his power and threatening her and demanded the minister’s immediate ouster from the Cabinet.
Addressing the media, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar alleged that the minister has been sexually exploiting a woman by using his position in the government. Refusing to reveal the name of the minister, he further charged that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant went out of the way to help his Cabinet colleague by trying to destroy the evidence, including objectionable audio and video clips of the minister.
Chodankar claimed that he had seen the photographs and videos of the minister in compromising positions and heard the audio clips in which the minister had threatened the woman and asked her to undergo an abortion.
Stating that he was not revealing the name of the minister to protect the dignity of his family and of the victim, Chodankar gave an ultimatum that if no action is taken within the next 15 days, then he will disclose the name of the minister.
“The Chief Minister should sack the minister within next 15 days and take legal action against him for misusing his power to sexually exploit the woman. If no action is taken by the government before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Goa on December 19, then the Congress party will take to the streets to demand justice to the woman,” Chodankar said.
Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee (GPMC) president Beena Naik said the Mahila Congress will launch an agitation in the State if the concerned minister is not removed from the Cabinet. She said that women are unsafe and feel insecure in the State and the failure to sack the minister from the Cabinet would instill fear in every woman.
The GPMC president also called upon the BJP Mahila Morcha to keep aside political difference and to come together to protect the dignity of women.
