Team Herald
VASCO: Hopes of justice to the victim girl are alive as the Judicial Magistrate First Class court Vasco has recently rejected the closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and ordered re-investigation of the Vasco minor girl rape case. The organisations in the forefront for justice to the minor have called this a victory of Vasco and Vascokars.
The victim minor girl has been waiting for justice for the last 5 years in the dastardly rape she had to face in 2013. After the Crime Branch failed to trace the accused and also failed to investigate the case in right direction, the case was handed over to the CBI. The CBI started investigation in 2015 and in 2017 had filed a closure report in the case. The Judicial Magistrate First Class of Vasco, Apurva Nagvenkar, has in her order, rejected the closure report and ordered reinvestigation of the case.
The Convenor of People Against Atrocity and Injustice (PAAI) Cyril A Fernandes has said: “This is lesson to CBI. The court has struck down the report of the CBI rightly as we also maintain that there has been no serious investigation by the Central Agency in this case.”
“The CBI didn’t put any efforts and no sensible person would close the investigation in this case. They have in fact relied only on the Police investigation and did not initiate any of theirs,” said Cyril.
On January 14, 2013 the innocent minor girl from a school in Sada was raped by an unknown person in the toilet block of the school she studied.
The incident evoked lot of anger across Goa demanding a proper investigation in the case. The Crime Branch was unable to track the culprit and further the CBI too had filed closure report in the case.
The PAAI has called this order of the JMFC as a victory of the people of Vasco and has now expected that the fresh investigation leads to finding and conviction of the accused in this case.
The father of the victim had during earlier hearings rejected the CBI plea for closing the case. The father had accused of inaccurate and no thorough investigation in the case by CBI after the case was handed over to them.
The father had alleged that the second investigation by the CBI did not
undertake identification parades of key persons who may help in investigation of the case. He had also told the court in his reply that multiple key witnesses in the case never testified during the CBI investigation.
The Convenor of Bailancho Ekvott, Auda Viegas, said “There can’t be a rape without a rapist. The circumstantial evidence in this case has been destroyed for whatever reason and proper line of investigation was must,” adding that “there is a need for re-investigation in the case.
