Team Herald
OLD GOA: It was an act of blatant goondaism, committed by locals with a history of arrests and time in jail, including for the rape and assault of a foreign tourist. In a further dent, Goa’s reputation as a tourist-friendly State took a beating on Wednesday, four Merces brutes stopped a tourist bus and assaulted the tourists leaving 11 tourists injured at Merces.
Old Goa police arrested three of the men – Lawrence Dias (34), Vishal Goltekar (30) and Suraj Shetye alias Babu (40) – for attempt to murder. All three have a criminal history. Of the 11 tourists injured, three have fractures on the hand.
The fight was triggered when a group of 47 persons, including children, from Vasai-Mumbai were returning after a short vacation in the State when some of them decided to halt at a restaurant on Merces-Panjim road for brunch.
Here Dias’ elbow knocked against one of the tourists who asked Dias to keep his distance. Police said that Dias, who recently served a sentence for rape of a foreigner, ‘pretended to be calm and apologised to the tourist.’
Dias noticed the tourist bus MH-04-G-9450 in which they were travelling parked close to the restaurant and called up Goltekar and Shetye.
“The tourists left the place after the incident, but the three men chased the bus and stopped it near Dr Pai’s house at Merces. They barged into the bus and began assaulting the passengers and the driver. The tourists retaliated and caught hold of one of them. Two others ran away and came back with koita, knife, sword and a stick. They broke the windshield of the bus and began assaulting the passengers again,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Nelson Albuquerque told Herald.
The accused also snatched the key of the bus and pelted stones at the it, damaging the vehicle and injuring some other occupants. The trio was then joined by another person identified as Sai Kundaikar who managed to escape with a word. However, the group of tourists caught hold of two others.
Passersby called the police control room as well as ambulance service in which the injured were shifted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital. “Robert-10 received a call at 10.30am. It reached the spot within nine minutes,” North Goa SP Kartik Kashyap said. The Old Goa PI and DySP too rushed to the spot.
Albuquerque said that 11 tourists were injured in the scuffle of whom three suffered fractures to the hand. Bus driver Shivaji Shelke was amongst those who was seriously injured.
The three accused – Dias, Goltekar and Shetye – all residents of Merces and currently unemployed also sustained injuries.
While the tourists were discharged later in the evening, police have booked the four local men for attempted murder, wrongfully restraining the tourists, endangering life/personal safety of others, causing hurt by dangerous weapons, mischief causing damage to amount of Rs 50, assault or criminal force in attempt to commit theft of property carried by a person and provoking breach of peace. The three men have been arrested and police are searching for the fourth person, the DySP said.
