MAPUSA
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday informed the State Legislative Assembly that the government driver who was arrested in connection with the rape of minor girls in Benaulim has been suspended.
“The driver who is employed with the agriculture department has been placed under suspension. We cannot dismiss him immediately. We have to first suspend him,” Sawant said.
The government driver Rajesh Mane (33) was one of the four accused who were arrested by the Colva Police in the ghastly gang-rape of two minors in Benaulim.
Colva Police had managed to arrest the four accused within hours of receiving the complaint from the victims.
It may be recalled, the two minor girls along with their male friends were out on the beach late Sunday evening when the alleged accused raped the two minors and also filmed the act in bid to extort money from them.
Police had first registered a rape case against the four but later invoked the provision of gang-rape against them.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also informed the House that police were still on the lookout for the third accused in the rape case that was reported in Colva in 2018.
Sawant informed that out of the three accused involved in that case, one of the accused Ram Santosh Bhariya was a minor and was reporting to the juvenile justice board while the second accused Sanjiv Pal was in judicial custody.
“The third accused Ishwar Makwana is absconding and the case has been transferred to the crime branch,” he said.
Fatorda MLA, Vijai Sardesai questioned whether lookout notices have been issued to all the police stations to nab the accused.
It may be recalled, the three accused who were tourists from Indore were charged with robbing and gang-raping a woman on Colva beach in May 2018. In that case too, the victim had claimed that the alleged rapists had filmed the sexual assault and threatened her not to inform the police.
