Nine inmates flee protective home, later traced by cops
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, SEPT 16
Protesting their prolonged lodging at the Protective Home in Merces, nine women rescued from a prostitution racket managed to flee from the home but were later traced with the help of Old Goa police.
The authorities, however, have tried to keep the incident under wraps as it exposed their lethargy of keeping the women for over three months against the legal provision to release them within 15 days.
Eyewitnesses disclosed that the women began protesting against their illegal detention in the home, this morning. They had assembled behind the main gate and started screaming for help calling out to people passing by.
As the protest grew intense, few of them managed to jump the fence and ran astray on the road. The managers of the protective home summoned police when situation went out of control.
Old Goa police Inspector Francis Corte said that the police managed to track all of them immediately and handed them over back to the home. “Our role was to trace these victims and hand them over to respective authorities,” he said when questioned whether an offence was registered against the fleeing eves.
The girls, who are victims of prostitution, were rescued by the police from various locations in North Goa. Sources further said that victims are rehabilitated or released within a period of fortnight from the day they are remanded to the protective home.
Surprisingly even after this hoopla, Director of Women and Child Department Sanjeev Gadkar was not informed about it. “I don’t have any information on the escape. If there is any such incident, I will ask for a report,” he said when Herald contacted him for his reaction.
The running of Protective Home and Apna Ghar are constantly under scanner due to frequent escapes by the inmates from there.
