It’s nearly a month now, but she still can’t really talkabout it. Little by little the facts come to light. She remembers thehandkerchief on her mouth. She can still hear his voice, telling her to keepquiet. She even remembers his face. She remembers her classmates hurriedlyexiting the girl’s toilet, with embarrassed looks.
She remember someone saying,“Chee! Dirty.” And all the while, her father looks on, helplessly, as hisdaughter wrestles with the demons of her rape. She’s seven years old, but thechild in her is dormant, perhaps dead. And the accused, her tormentor, is stillon the loose.
As political protagonists take advantage of the minor girl’srape in a Headland Sada school, a bizarre tale of playing to the gallery and politicalopportunism is emerging, where the course of investigation is beingcompromised.
Shocking details have emerged. The father reveals that hisdaughter was given chocolates has gifts by the protagonist, on threeconsecutive days. Once, he gave her Kinder Joy, a foreign chocolate, in fullview of a CISF jawan. As for the father, he spends his time running from oneoffice to another, trying to find out the status of the case, hoping that thepolice would find something.
“I have not even got a copy of the medical examinationconducted on my daughter by Goa Police” claims the victim’s father. His fear isthat the report could well be doctored and the investigation scrapped. The CISFpersonnel haven’t been questioned. Neither has the school management, nor someof the students who saw the accused, minutes, even seconds before the crime wascommitted.
While a teacher and a few other staff have been suspended,the 15 member police team has hit a blank wall in their investigations. Notsurprisingly, since first the school, by not reporting the crime immediatelyand then the police themselves, by going through multiple sketches, delayed thematter.
While politicians fight it out on the streets, calling forbandhs and using the incident to further their own agendas, somewhere in Vasco afather watches his daughter suffer silently.
