MAPUSA: French actress Marianne Borgo, who emerged from effective captivity in her home of 15 years, only to get fresh air, have a bath, and live in a place that has electricity, is waiting in a hotel room, to get justice.
That will happen when the judgment on the civil suit decides if she will be able to possess the house she claims she has “bought”, through transactions that led to her purportedly being in possession and enjoying the benefits of an owner. The next hearing in the matter is now on February 9th.
Borgo, who is a well-known French actor living in Goa for close to two decades, is one of the better-known foreign settlers in Goa and an active invitee on the Indian film circuit and a member of the jury in several film festivals.
However, as the attention of all has been diverted to the civil suit, there is absolute silence on the criminal complaint of Marianne Borgo filed before the Calangute Police on January 24, that her ipad, jewellery, papers, and other valuables were stolen during what she called was a siege and takeover of her house by “hired goons”. The acts of electricity and water being denied to her and eventually even cooking gas for her cooking of someone, who lived in that house peacefully, during the lifetime of the original owner Francisco de Souza.
Marianne, in desperation even reached out to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant asking him to direct the police to rescue her. To no avail.
The National Human Rights Commission (Law Division) has also directed SP North to initiate appropriate action within eight weeks acting on the complaint filed by Avinash Tavares stating that “some people are trying to grab Borgo’s property and have illegally restrained her in her house and the bouncers are not letting anyone meet her nor letting her leave the house.”
At the end of the day, what lies in the courts will be decided and has to be accepted. But a greater need is for Goa to redeem itself from the international condemnation it has got for failing to protect a 75-year-old French national from the torture, threats, and great mental distress, with the State, simply looking the other way. This is borne out both in Marianne's complaints and statements as well as in letters written by other French nationals to the French Embassy appealing for help to rescue Marianne and take her to a safe place.