MARGAO
In a shocking incident, a 14-year old girl student was sexually assaulted and raped by a 40-year old accused from Telangana on August 15 (Independence Day) at her rented room at Colva.
Incidentally, the accused happened to be the friend of the victim’s father, who was staying with the family in the rented room.
The accused Devaraj Kaki, a native of Telangana, is cooling his heels in the lock up of the Colva police station. He has since been remanded to five days police custody.
Colva police station in charge, PI Satish Padwalkar informed that the accused was staying with victim’s family at a rented room at Colva. He said the accused and the victim’s father are working in a restaurant at Colva.
The incident came to light after the victim girl narrated her ordeal to the school teacher, who conveyed the incident to the headmistress. The girl was later taken to the One Stop Centre (OSC) run by NGO Bailancho Ekvott President Auda Viegas, where the victim narrated the entire incident, before the matter was reported to the Colva police.
Expressing shock over the incident, Auda said the victim used to call the accused uncle since he was her father’s friend. “This accused has been staying with the victim’s family for a long time now. The sexual assault on the girl had been taking place for a long time now”, Auda said.
Incidentally, the victim narrated her ordeal when the mother gone to her native state Karnataka.
Shedding light on the incident, PI Padwalkar said preliminary inquiry by the police has revealed that the accused had forceful sexual intercourse with the victim on multiple occasions in the absence of her parents. “Whenever the parents were out of the house, the accused had forceful sexual intercourse with the victim girl. The latest incident had occurred on Independence Day when the accused sexually assaulted the girl in the absence of her parents”, he said.
To a question, he said both the accused and the victim’s father are working in a restaurant at Colva and hence were putting up in the rented room in the village.
The Colva police has arrested the accused under section 65(1), 76 of the BNS Act and under section 8(2) of Goa Children’s Act and section 4,6,8 and 12 of the POCSO Act.
