PANAJI/MARGAO
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said he has directed the police to investigate in depth and get to the bottom of the alleged Margao rape case fiasco.
"Although the victim has back-tracked, I have instructed the police to investigate thoroughly and submit a report. Once it is done, I will make public the finding," Sawant said responding to media queries on the episode.
"I will not make any comment on it until the police furnish their report," Sawant said in response to another media query as to whether the case exposed the chinks in the mechanisms and procedure adopted by Margao police in first resgistering the case and subsequent investigation.
Sawant said, the government was also looking at the human trafficking angle in the case and sought to deny that there was delay in registering the complaint.
“She (victim) came on her own with the NGO and said that no rape has happened. It depends on the victim after all,” Sawant said.
In a related development in the “rape” of the Karnataka woman, the Margao police on Thursday arrested one Shabrish Manjrekar, a resident of Borda in an alleged case of trafficking, for impersonating and misrepresenting himself as a licensed contractor/agent to the victim and to the household owner where she was brought as a caregiver at Comba on March 15.
In a suo complaint, the Margao police has charged the contractor for further inducing the victim girl by calling her on mobile phone and offering her employment as a caretaker with huge salary, food and accommodation.
He was further accused by the police for taking an amount of Rs. 25,000 from the employer, resident of Comba, Margao as an advance and did not pay to the victim girl thereby cheated the victim girl of the salary amount for her as wages without her knowledge thus accused person trafficked, cheated and exploited victim girl.
The accused person has been arrested under ection 319(2), 143 (1) (f) and 318 of BNS 2023.
