VASCO
In a ghastly incident which has shocked the port town, a 5-year-old girl was raped and murdered at a site under construction in Vaddem-Vasco in the wee hours of Friday.
Police has rounded up 20 labourers from the construction site in this connection.
Speaking to reporters, South Goa SP Sunita Sawant said the parents had found the body of the girl in the basement of the construction site.
"Police received a call from the Chicalim Cottage Hospital stating that a girl of around 5 years had been brought to the hospital and doctors realised that she was already dead,” said SP Sawant.
Mormugao DySP Santosh Desai and Vasco PI Kapil Nayak began investigations and police carried out the inquest panchanama, before sending the body for an autopsy.
“Primarily, it was observed that the girl had froth coming out of the nose. A post-mortem carried out on the body revealed that the deceased was sexually assaulted. The post mortem also revealed that the girl was murdered by smothering and strangulation,” said SP Sawant.
“We have rounded up around 20 labourers who were working on the site and our investigations are in progress. Vasco police have registered an offence of rape and murder in under Sections 376, 302, the POCSO Act and sections of the Goa Children’s Act.”
THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
VASCO: According to sources, the 5-year-old girl was the only child of the family who originally hails from Bengal.
"The father is a watchman and had been in Goa for around 9 months along with his wife and daughter. The girl would usually accompany the father and the family would stay in a temporary room on the ground floor of the building, which also housed many other temporary room-like structures in the building occupied by labourers and construction site workers,” said the source.
“These rooms are temporary structures and don't have a proper lock system as such and each room houses around 2-3 labourers who can walk from one room to another.”
“On Thursday night, the girl was with the father till about 12 am playing around but after noticing the child feeling sleepy, the father told her to go to the room to sleep with the mother. At around 2 am, when the father reached his room, he found that the daughter was not present and asked his wife about the daughter’s whereabouts.”
The source said the wife panicked and said the girl had not come to the room at all and she had assumed that she had been with him.
“When they realised that their daughter was not around, both of them started looking frantically using the mobile phone torch and finally found the girl in the basement of the building at around 2.30 am,” said the source.
“The parents rushed the child, who had froth coming out of her nostrils, to the Chicalim Sub District Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. The Chicalim Sub District Hospital later informed the Vasco police about the incident at around 3 am," said the source.
SUSPICION ON CO-WORKERS
The source told The Goan that on Wednesday night, many labourers had been totally drunk and had been partying at night.
“On the same night, the girl’s mother sensed that two labourers had entered the room and she felt the touch of a male hand in the dark while she was asleep in the room with her daughter,” said the source.
“After the mother screamed and switched on the lights in the room, the persons fled. The father complained to the supervisor about the incident on Thursday morning and the supervisor had assured to take up the matter with his superiors on Friday since it was Eid on Thursday.”
“The labourers are believed to have been drinking again on Thursday night and after the parents found the body of the girl in the basement of the building in the wee hours of Friday morning, the father had gone to the rooms of the labourers to enquire into the incident.”
Instead of wasting further time to enquire about the incident, the source said the family chose to take their child to the hospital on priority and save her life but she was declared dead on arrival.
“Considering the situation at the construction site where labourers had been drinking, the mother told Vasco police that she suspected that her daughter could have been raped and murdered. The autopsy report confirmed the mother’s suspicion that the girl was sexually assaulted and murdered by smothering and strangulation," the source added.
