Minor girl in UK-based charity home in north Goa raped by staff, NGO bosses escape and 30-odd inmates are ‘missing’

PANJIM: A fifteen-year-old girl, an inmate of a UK-based charity Light House, in North Goa, was found 10 weeks pregnant, after being allegedly raped by a staff of the charity, who incidentally was immediately released by the Old Goa Police after being arrested for rape in April this year. And, before the Women and Child Department could issue its order for the closure of the Charity, the couple who ran the Charity shut it down and “escaped”. The whereabouts and the fate of the 30 odd children who lived there is uncertain and unknown. The Secretary to the Chief Minister and Secretary Women and Child P Krishnamurthy told Herald, that the duo who ran the Charity Graham and Tricia Phillips Clarke “seem to have disappeared”. On the issue of the 30 children who have disappeared, he said he would have to check on this and revert.

The staff member, Motilal, who was arrested after the complaint made by the mother of the girl to the Old Goa police station, after she found out that her daughter was pregnant and her statement recorded; was bafflingly released. 

The complicity of Graham and Tricia Philps Clarke is almost certain from this development. In her statement to the police, the child explained that she had complained to the NGO management about the alleged sexual assault. Instead of lodging a complaint and taking further action, Motilal was merely barred from entering the girls’ dormitory, which he should have been anyway. 

Besides failing to inform the criminal act to the police, the NGO also violated another order of the Department. Advocate Emidio Pinho, a former director of an NGO SCAN, who first highlighted the incidents after being called upon to help by the Old Goa police, said, “The home failed to inform the matter to the police, which brings the in-charge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. The institution is also personally responsible under section 19 of Goa Children’s Act for failing to ensure her protection,” He added that he has also sought constituting a panel to locate the ‘missing inmates’, most of whom are non-Goans. 

Motilal, the alleged rapist and potential serial offender, is now free. And no legal action has been initiated against the duo, barring the order of the closure of the Charity and the rejection of their application for registration on July 30, which was issued by the Women and Child Department. They have in all likelihood fled the country, without the knowledge of the government.

The Department that conducted regular hearing on this case since April issued several show cause notices to the children’s home, which returned unanswered. However, in an email communication on May 28, 2014 the in-charge (probably Graham) denied acts of negligence. The “incharge” (Graham) also did not comment on the block inspection team report that alleged it was unable to meet anyone during their inspection on April 22, 2014.  Yet, please note the “incharge” sent an email on May 28, rather than appear for a personal hearing scheduled on the same day at the office of the Women and Child Department.

It is still unclear if there is even a missing persons report lodged to trace the 30-odd children who were in that home, mostly children from economically deprived families from within the State and outside.

Old Goa Police Inspector Krishna Sinhari confirmed his arrest. “Investigation is in progress. We are gathering the accused’s antecedents and other details related to the case,” he told Herald. However, this is statutory rape as the girl is a minor. But how does Sinhari explain the release and the circumstances in which Motilal the accused was released. 

Sources in the Women and Child Department said an abortion was carried out at Goa Medical College. “She was studying Class 11, the fees for which were paid by this Charity institution. During her summer vacation, she returned to her mother and siblings. Her pregnancy was detected when she was taken to a clinic after she complained of severe stomach pain,” an official said. 

There are mounting questions with no answers and a few grim realities that fly in the face of the government’s tagline of zero tolerance to sexual offences in its youth policy. A minor girl was raped in an unregistered foreign Charity home, the rapist freed and the heads of the Charity allowed to disappear with the fate of 30 inmates of that home unknown.