Sunday, November 30, 2008

‘I wanted case to be closed out of desperation’

‘I wanted case to be closed out of desperation’
What The German Mother Told Police In Her Second Letter

Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: The letter given to the police on November 9 by the German woman who had alleged her daughter had been raped by a minister’s son seeking that the “complaint be treated as closed” was “done out of desperation and in the interest to protect my daughter from further annoyance”.
This was stated in a subsequent letter (a copy of which is in TOI’s possession) she gave to SP (north) Bosco George on November 11. Her first letter to the PI, Calangute, two days earlier had said, “I don’t wish to proceed with the complaint and the said case should be treated as closed.”
The second letter also claims that “for whichever reason”, her counsel Aires Rodrigues “saw it to be the better way”.
Rodrigues had withdrawn from the case a day after she gave the letter.
The second letter was submitted after a closed-door meeting with George and investigating officer PI Tushar Vernekar. George said, “We did receive a letter from the mother two days after she gave a letter withdrawing her complaint. But we wouldn’t like to divulge any information as investigation is in progress.”
“My daughter after giving her statement to the judge broke down...She was nervous and due to this (she was) not able to confront the matter. She needs a little bit time to recover from all this,” the woman wrote.
Admitting that “it is a good sign” that her daughter is opening up to her, the woman wrote to the police that her daughter is gradually telling her what had happened to her. This was something “she was not doing before. I am trying carefully to convince her now so that she will be ready to give more details to the police about the incident, which I know is important to proceed with the investigations. So please allow me more time until I see that my daughter feels more easy to talk about it before the police”, she added.
On November 11, the German woman submitted another letter to the SP (north)
seeking leave to take her daughter to Germany after she gave her additional statement to the police. “I would appreciate it very much as she needs a follow-up treatment by her doctors in Germany,” the mother wrote.
Meanwhile, the Calangute police has attached the hard disk of the computer used by the minor girl to communicate with the minister’s son, and sent it to Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, for examination.

27 November,2008,The Times of India, Goa edition

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