PANAJI
A woman, mesmerised or trapped in a black magic spell cast by a tantrik, offers her minor daughter to him. He promises the girl to fulfill “all her wishes in life” and often rapes her.
This isn’t a story from a remote north Indian village, but shockingly happened in a fairly urbanised Cansa locality of Thivim in North Goa and came to light after the distraught father of the 14-year-old victim girl reported it to the police.
Colvale police arrested the 50-year-old Ramakant Naik, from Cansa-Thivim on charges of raping and sexually assaulting the girl, reportedly “offered to him” by her mother. The woman has also been arrested and both are remanded to police custody.
The woman, according to a top police officer linked to the probe, was under a spell of Naik, who is said to be a practitioner of witchcraft.
She offered her daughter to the alleged tantrik, the top police official said.
The victim’s mother was arrested and taken into custody by Colvale police late on Tuesday night after preliminary questioning of the ‘tantrik’ revealed her role and complicity in the crime.
Naik, who was also referred to as ‘Baba’ practiced local witchcraft (‘ghadi’ in local parlance), a fairly common practice in rural Goa.
He has been remanded to police custody and is booked under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), besides section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012, and section 8(2) of the Goa Children’s Act, 2003.
The victim, encouraged by her mother, was lured into submitting herself into the tutelage of the tantrik but was tricked and sexually exploited by promising to “fulfill all her wishes in life”, said another police official familiar with the ongoing probe.
Lady police sub-inspector (LPSI) Sonam Vernekar is conducting the investigation, supervised by Police Inspector Somnath Mahajik, DySP Jivba Dalvi and Superintendent of Police (North Goa) Shobit Saxena, IAS.
