Team Herald
MARGAO: “Are our Goan children safe and can they really move around freely without any fear?” asked Auda Viegas of Bailancho Ekvott responding to the latest incident of four teenage minor boys who were abducted by four youth.
It may be recalled that on November 29, four teenagers studying in the XII science at Fr Agnelo Higher Secondary School were abducted in broad daylight and kept in custody for nearly four hours, before they were rescued by their parents.
The four accused, who are aged between 22 and 28, first made the victims pose for photographs showing them smoking cigarettes and subsequently threatened to release those photographs on social media, accusing them of consuming drugs.
They took away Rs 600 that the four students had and made them sit on their bikes and took them to an isolated space on the hill at Raia, where they were beaten so badly that all four had swollen faces by evening.
They also asked the teenagers to call up their parents and demanded Rs 70,000 for their release, which the parents agreed and accordingly the abductors were asked to come near Arlem ground with the children to collect the money.
However, an advocate consulted by one of the parent advised them not to inform the police but to give the money.
and if possible grab one of the abductors. And that was exactly what the parents did. While the other three fled from the scene, the parents caught one and informed the advocate, who in turn informed the police who rushed to the spot and apprehended the abductor.
The teenagers, though battered, went home safely with their parents, who also recovered the money they had paid to the abductors as the trio fled leaving the money behind. By late night the police arrested the other three too.
Auda opined that the abductors were drug users and peddlers and committed the crime only to gather money to purchase more drugs. However, Fatorda Police Inspector Navlesh Dessai said the use of drugs is not established as yet.
“They have confessed of doing this act only to get some money as all four are unemployed and were in need of money,” he said.
Incidentally, while three of the abductors are migrants living in Goa, one is a local, whose father is dead and brother works overseas. Incidentally, not a single member of their family came to visit the four, who are now in police custody.
The four arrested are Janglisab Valekar living in Majorda, Sameer Shaikh living in Davorlim, Saddam Sayed living in Raia and Delson Quadros from Raia, who was the first to be arrested at Arlem ground.
