TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Initially it was the Scarlett Keeling case, recently it is the Vasco girl raped in the school toilet which Goa police have failed to crack. The result ~the responsibility to nab the culprits crack has been handed to the Central Bureau of Investigation. However, what is alarming is the delay in handing over these cases which has proved detrimental given that these are criminal cases and have to rely on clues that have obviously grown cold.
But the sense of urgency is still not there. For example, more than eight months have elapsed and the state’s premier agencies admit that they have failed to nab the culprit due to which they decided to hand over the case to the CBI, and at least a month after the government promised to hand the case over – and CBI agreeing to take over the case – the state is still handing over case papers, leaving itself open to allegations of a state that is lackadaisical in delivering justice.
Locals draw a parallel of terminal patients being normally referred to the Goa Medical College and Hospital, due to its supposedly having the ‘best facilities’.
The investigation into British teen Scarlet Keeling’s death was sent to the CBI after allegations of botched up autopsies, non application of mind by concerned investigating officers.
Incidentally, all the accused officers are on duty at present and the ones accused of the deed are free on bail. The trial is on.
In the Vasco rape case too, the accused are free and the victim, according to media reports quoting her family, even eight months after her traumatic experience she is still scared of going alone anywhere.
The minor girl was raped inside school toilet on January 14 this year and after the Crime Branch of Goa Police failed to arrest the culprit, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that the case would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. All approvals have come – but the notification is still not released and the papers are still to be handed over to the concerned department.
Trying to defending the state police on this, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, on the floor of the House, had attributed their inability to arrest the culprit to having no “luck.”
After the incident Parrikar, told reporters that the accused was, in fact, nabbed even before the sexual assault had taken place, after he was found moving in the school in a suspicious manner.
“The culprit was caught by the staff before the incident could take place and he was produced before the headmistress. When asked to justify his presence in the school, the accused told the headmistress that he had entered from the second school gate, which is manned by a security guard. He then proceeded to the third gate leading into school building,” Parrikar had told Herald, adding, “Instead of merely asking him to leave the school premises, the headmistress should have locked both the school gates to prevent him from entering the school a second time,” while holding the headmistress responsible for negligence.
In the Scarlett case, there were 50 separate injuries in the February 2008 incident. All but five of those were missed at the original post mortem, and she was found to have drowned accidentally.
But a second post-mortem examination had showed she had been raped and murdered with the
pathologist saying that she had been held under water for five to ten minutes. Tests also showed she had taken ecstasy, cocaine and LSD before her death on Anjuna beach in February 2008.
more than eight months have elapsed and the state’s premier agencies admit that they have failed to nab the culprit due to which they decided to hand over the case to the CBI, and at least a month after the government promised to hand the case over – and CBI agreeing to take over the case – the State is still handing over case papers, leaving itself open to allegations of a state that is lackadaisical in delivering justice
