Prostitution racket busted at Porvorim

Prostitution racket busted at Porvorim
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji: Crime branch sleuths busted a prostitution racket operating from a car on NH 17 at O Coqueiro junction, Porvorim and rescued three women. However, the person accused of procuring girls for running the racket is absconding.
Investigating officer PI (crime branch) Sunita Sawant said, “Acting on information that a man was getting girls in Wagon R to the junction for the purpose of prostitution, we reached the spot when we saw three women sitting in the wagon R. Nobody was in the driver’s seat and these three women
were sitting in the back seat.”
According to the PI, these women were brought to Goa with a promise of a job in the hotel industry. When they reached Goa from Mumbai, they were pushed into prostitution and told that they would be paid Rs 15,000 at the end of 15 days. The girls, two of them from West Bengal and one from Assam, all in their early twenties, said they had come by bus from Mumbai two days back and were picked up by one Patel from the Panaji bus stand.
They were taken to the same spot everyday at 5 pm and picked up the next morning. Explaining the modus operandi, PI Sawant said, “Patel would park the car with the women near the Karnataka bank and then go to the busy junction at Porvorim to procure customers. The customers had to hire a taxi in which they took the women for the night. Next morning, the women had to be dropped at the same spot”, said PI Sawant. According to the women, the customers had to pay Rs 6,000 per night to Patel, of which Rs 1000 was paid to the girls.
Patel has been booked by the police for procuring girls, forcing them into prostitution, living on their earnings and indulging in prostitution within 200m of the place of worship, ie the Holy Family church.

October 16,2008, The Times of India, Goa

German minors case;Twist in tale: Girl tries to save Rohit

Twist in tale: Girl tries to save Rohit
Refuses To Testify, Revolts Against Mother
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji: In a fresh twist to the alleged rape case involving the Goa education minister’s elder son Rohit and a German minor, the girl has refused to give her statement to the police and subject herself to a medical examination.
“We can’t wait too long. If the girl fails to give her statement, we will have a difficult case on our hands,” said superintendent of police (North) Bosco George. “She is under psychological counselling and we are hopeful that she will give her statement,” he added.
The police are still searching for Rohit, who is absconding. “If he thinks he is innocent, Babush should produce his son before the police,” said George. The option of arresting Babush is also open, he added. The police have provided armed security to the mother and daughter.
A police team, along with a child activist, had gone to the minor’s residence on Tuesday night to convince her to give her statement and submit herself to a medical examination. “However, the minor threw a tantrum, locked herself up in a room and refused to meet anyone,” said a police official. On Wednesday, a police team accompanied by a child activist and a child clinical psychologist again went to meet the girl and her mother.
Police sources said the minor’s statement and medical examination is crucial to the case as the mother’s complaint on Tuesday had alleged that state education minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate’s son Rohit had sexually assaulted her daughter, outraged her modesty and raped her, offences punishable under section 354 and 376 of IPC.
However, Aires Rodrigues, the woman’s counsel, said the girl’s statement is not important as copies of SMSs sent by Rohit have been produced before the police. “The case will not fall apart. As per the Goa Children’s Act, the onus is on the accused to prove he is not guilty. Let Rohit prove that he has not sexually abused the minor,” he said.
Rodrigues added that the girl will give her statement and even go for a medical examination. At the moment, the mother is going through a trauma and the child is also scared, he said, adding, “The minor is under pressure from Rohit and is protective of him.”
Recollecting about a call the mother received from her minor daughter after she filed a complaint on October 2 at Calangute police station, Rodrigues said, “She called her mother and asked her to withdraw the complaint as she didn’t want Rohit to get into any trouble.”
The mother has also said that the daughter is upset and confused. “She thinks of Rohit as a friend and believes that I am against her friends. But I explained to her that what he did was wrong,” added the mother.
Police officials said they have asked for the call details of both Rohit and the minor girl. The police also handed over the FIR to the children’s court.

German consulate takes up case, writes to Goa
Panaji: Adding to the embarrassment of the Digambar Kamat government, the German consulate in Mumbai has written to the chief secretary regarding the sexual assault on a German minor girl allegedly by the state education minister’s elder son.
The German consulate requested chief secretary J P Singh to “ensure that the criminal investigation is pursued vigorously and that the safety of Ms X (name withheld) and her daughter is not compromised”. “The consulate general and our embassy in New Delhi have been seized of this matter and we are following the case with great concern,” the consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany, Walter Stechel, wrote. TNN

MONSERRATES DEFEND THEIR SON
Why are police trying to cajole the girl to go for a medical examination? If she was raped, she would have gone willingly to hospital.
The mobile to which SMSs were sent is in the mother’s name. Maybe someone was sending them to her
Police are controlled by the home minister. They never acted on allegations against his family

October 16,2008, The Times of India, Goa edition