Mother of three beaten by neighbours, chilli powder stuffed in her genitals
The Camurlim incident was a real shocker. A mother-of-three was not just ruthlessly beaten up by her neighbours, the cruel attackers went to an extent stuffing chilli powder in her genitals. She would have lived a relatively safe life, had Mapusa police taken seriously her previous complaints against mother Sonabai Sasve and husband-wife duo Jorge and Bharti.
In March, the single mother was subjected to cruelty which the Mapusa police headed by Tushar Vernekar failed to take cognizance of. Her various complaints of harassment against her neighbour were registered as non-cognizable offences though the police were well aware of the nature of crime. It began with a property dispute when the victim woman and the trio would often indulge in verbal arguments but these later took an ugly turn. The complaint was registered as non-cognizable despite it amounting to rape, as per the amended Rape law.
Police’s action against them was initiated possibly only after Herald launched a sustained campaign to seek justice for her. ASI Vithu Naik faced the axe for trying to prove her as mentally unfit and refusing to act on her complaints. Highly placed police sources had told this reporter that Naik had approached a local magistrate to allow Mapusa police to admit her to the government run Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, Bambolim. The request letter was nonetheless not acted upon. “He had written to the magistrate based on her attackers’ version that she would pelt stones on them. But it was rejected after the victim recounted her ordeal to the magistrate,” the officer had disclosed.
After Herald reports highlighted the brutality, Mapusa police re-registered this case as cognizable offence, arrested the assailants and suspended the constable. But they were released by the court soon thereafter.
