TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: At least 18 cases of sexual assault and rape, and 13 cases of molestation were reported since the Goa Assembly’s budget session in March 2014 concluded, indicating the growing lack of fear of the law among perpetrators.
This certainly does not exclude culpability of police, given their direct involvement, abetment and or negligence, in the Bicholim and Camurlim brutalities on women.
While Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was quick to turn down his cabinet colleague Sudin Dhavalikar’s controversial remark on bikini ban which the latter said was “for their (women) own safety,” the ruling coalition does not seem to have woken up to the increasing crimes against women.
Lots have been spoken about providing safety to women but when law enforcers turn law breakers, the reality of protection for women becomes a distant dream.
The Bicholim incident in March when drunken constable Amjad Karol dragged a 70-year-old destitute woman and stripped her naked in public is one such example. He was suspended and arrested after media outburst but bailed out after about a month back.
Even as in majority cases, the victim and the accused are familiar with each other. In these cases police have refused to either register an offence or immediately act on FIRs.
The recent Camurlim incident shocked the conscience of the entire State wherein a migrant mother of a six-year-old girl child was not only mercilessly beaten by her migrant neighbours, over a property dispute, but her genitals were stuffed with chilli powder. All these brutal eventualities could have been avoided had the Mapusa police acted in right earnest over her previous complaints against Sonabai Sasve and husband-wife duo of Jogre and Bharti.
Police action against them was possible only after a sustained campaign by Herald to give her justice. ASI Vithu Naik faced the axe for trying to prove her mentally unfit and refusing to act on her complaints.
Incidents against underage girls are another scare among the parents with a recent case of paedophilia reported at Agassaim. A minor orphan was rescued from the clutches of her ‘male caretaker’ who sexually abused her in the dormitory of a school at Pillar. The man is arrested and another minor girl, held hostage in his house, was also rescued.
Highest number of nine cases of molestation were reported in April and June while six rapes were registered during June this year followed by five cases each in March (after March 8) and April.
Crime file
Elderly destitute woman dragged and stripped naked by constable Amjad Karol in Bicholim; accused arrested and bailed out
Migrant woman beaten and chilli powder inserted in her genitals by her neighbours at Camurlim over property dispute; police blamed for inaction
Kashinath Dhumaskar charged with sexually abusing and clicking pictures of 32-year-old in a compromising position with him at Old Goa; accused arrested and bailed out
Unidentified accused kidnaps 16-year-old at Quepem
One Naresh accused of stalking an underage girl in the capital city
