PANJIM: The Additional Principal District and Sessions Court will hear St Cruz MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate’s bail petition on Monday. Monserrate is under arrest on charges of human trafficking and raping a minor girl.
“The case will be heard tomorrow in the court at 10 am,” Monserrate’s advocate Rajeev Gomes said.
Monserrate, who was arrested on May 5, has been in police custody for the last ten days. The girl’s mother and another woman, Rosy Ferros, are also under arrest on charges of human trafficking after the girl claimed that she was sold to Monserrate for Rs 50 lakh. The girl said she was raped in the first week of March.
In his bail petition, the former minister has said there is no prima facie case against him. “The applicant states that police have falsely applied penal offences to the case against the applicant, which are not attracted at all to the facts. The applicant states that sections have been fraudulently applied pursuant to the political conspiracy against the applicant,” the petition states.
Monserrate said that all allegations against him are false, and the alleged minor girl has come up with an imaginary story of indirectly suggesting that she was drugged and abused at his farmhouse in Taleigao. He also stated that he could not have met the girl on March 6 and 8, as these were the election and counting days of the Corporation of the City of Panaji elections and he was busy with friends, supporters and candidates.
Monserrate has also stated that the case against him is politically motivated. “The applicant states that it appears that after gaining knowledge about the animosity of the alleged minor girl with the applicant, the alleged minor girl was manipulated and persuaded to make the false allegations against the applicant, in order to tarnish the image of the applicant in society and get the applicant arrested in a heinous crime, with the sole intention of politically weakening the applicant,” the petition states.
