PANJIM: The hasty registration of First Information Report (FIR) and subsequent investigation after Herald’s sustained campaign into the most barbaric torture on a woman in Camurlim, clearly points out that police have lost crucial evidences from the crime scene owing to their own laxity in the case.
The FIR against mother Sonabai, son Jogre Sasve and daughter-in-law Bharti Sasve, days after they severely wounded the victim and their arrests followed by panchanama is proof that the local police station was not interested to help the woman who was almost done to death, and ‘raped’, under the new definition of IPC in the amended rape law, as chilli powder was stuffed into her genitals.
Non-cognisable offence registered for such a severe case On June 23, though Mapusa district hospital confirmed that the middle-aged victim’s genitals were stuffed with chilli powder and she had severe bruise marks on her body. And what did the Goa police do. They registered a non-cognizable offense as they did to her previous complaints against these perpetrators.
Chilli powder and DNA samples not collected, house washed “The chilli powder and other DNA samples could have been collected on the very day if the police had to take up the matter seriously. I believe her house was later washed which means we have lost crucial piece of evidence,” convenor Bailancho Saad Sabina Martins told Herald. After she was rushed to the hospital, the nurses got her genitals washed four to five times and bathed her.The wooden-rib with which the victim was beaten has not been recovered. Only her nighty, chappals and stones have been found and recovered.
Medical examination five days after the incident Moreover, the victim’s medical examination was carried out five days after the incident. Nonetheless, the doctors of Goa Medical College have confirmed bruises on her body. “Medical examination should be conducted within 24 hours of the incident which did not happen in this case. But the bruises are so deep that we could confirm the victim was subjected to brutality,” said one of the doctors. A panel of gynaecologists examined the victim for several hours.
In yet another setback for the police, the articles on the scene of crime was intact when the police reached to conduct the panchanama. That’s obvious because enough time was given to the perpetrators to cover the scene of crime. “The panchanama of the house where the woman was thrashed was video-graphed. Everything in the house was in its place,” a source disclosed.
Sources further disclosed that victim’s daughter had called up the 1091 women helpline number after seeing her mother being mercilessly beaten up by the neighbours. Some other neighbours simultaneously called up 108 Ambulance apprehending she would succumb to injuries.The accused had alleged that the victim had entered their house to rob their belongings from the cupboard on the fateful day. Sources further state that the assailants allegedly have political backing because of which the victim’s earlier complaints against them were not registered by the police.
