VASCO
The neighborhood colony residents on Sunday told reporters that the screaming of children from the Baina flat was a regular affair, while NGO Savera Convener Tara Kerkar said that a 14-year-old girl had committed suicide in the same apartment.
Kerkar said she had raised the issue of the children in the flat at the highest level in the police department. “Habib was in Goa for several years. A girl in the range of 14 to 15 years had committed suicide in the same flat,” she said. I had made a noise even then and had requested not to give her the dead body of the girl, she recalled.
The questions being raised are where was Habib getting the children from? who are their parents? where are the birth certificates? why are they kept in the flat?
Kerkar said, “If she claims she is running an NGO, then police must check her papers. Her neighbors have complained several times, but no action was taken. But today I am happy finally she is being booked. Police must check whether she is involved in kidnapping cases.”
Neighbor Rakhal Chandra Das said screaming of children from the flat was a regular affair.
“We would shudder listening to the cries of the girls. Every time we used to hear small children screaming for help. Even the girl who is claimed to have committed suicide was beaten up. We heard her scream the night before the suicide. Late nights we used to see movement of foreigners who came in cars. Sometimes people would go up and sometimes children would sit in the car. I cannot explain how they would be beaten. Anyone who questioned her would only invite the most filthiest words. Many a time she would threaten to implicate us in a false rape case. She would say she is well connected. The entire colony feared talking to her. We were helpless when we heard children scream. Sometimes kids were found begging for food. Sometimes there were days when there were no children, but after a gap they would be back,” narrated Das.
