Team Herald
CALANGUTE: Safety of tourists visiting Goa has again come into question after a group of tourists from Pune were allegedly assaulted on Diwali night on Thursday by a taxi driver and another person at the St Anthony's chapel junction in Calangute, when they were attempting to walk across the road at around 9 pm.
Relating the incident to reporters, Rizwan Sheikh, one of the tourists from Pune, said as the road was blocked on all sides with Diwali night traffic, he asked a taxi driver who was parked in the middle of the road to move a
little ahead.
"Angry at being told to move, the taxi driver started abusing me, questioning me on who I was to tell him to move. He then came out of the vehicle and started hitting me. When my wife tried to stop him, he also allegedly assaulted her. Other female family members were also assaulted by the taxi driver, who was drunk," Sheikh said.
When the other family members attempted to stop the assault, another taxi driver rushed to help the first taxi driver and also began to assault the tourists.
When the tourists called the police, the two taxi drivers fled from the spot. Upset and frightened, Fauzia Sheikh, the wife of Rizwan Sheikh, later filed a complaint at the Calangute police station following which an FIR was registered.
“The taxi drivers were completely drunk and abusing us with filthy Goan bad words,” Nadia Sheikh, one of the tourists, said.
Calangute police said in their complaint, the tourists provided the tourist taxi registration number through which they traced the owner of the vehicle, who was identified as Philip Xavier Noronha, and also got his phone number from the car registration.
"However, the phone number was switched off and the taxi driver also had not returned to his residence in the night where a police team went there," Calangute PI Paresh Naik claimed. He was taken into custody when he returned in the morning, according to Calangute police. The other taxi driver who was also involved in the assault is yet to be arrested.
Relieved that the taxi driver was arrested, the tourists thanked the police while talking to media. However, the Sheikh family said the Goa government needs to do more to ensure the safety of tourists visiting the state.
“Are we safe when visiting Goa? We came expecting a safe tourist destination, but people in Pune and elsewhere who have seen the video of us being assaulted, which has gone viral, I don't think anyone will want to visit Goa,” Rizwan said.