By Aires Rodrigues
On 14th March it will be two months that the 7 year old girl was brutally raped in broad day light in the toilet of Deep Vihar School at Vasco run by the Mormugao Port trust. The rapist is not yet nabbed, the same being the case with the school staff headed by Headmistress Sharlet Furtado. No one has been nailed as yet.
The police were informed only three hours after the ghastly rape while the school staff washed away all the evidence. Led by Headmistress Sharlet Furtado, Class teacher Mrs. Deesha Kavathankar and head clerk Mrs. Brazina Godinho the school staff high-handedly destroyed all evidence by washing the victim’s clothes, giving her bath and cleaning the toilet after the sexual assault. Shockingly the victim received medical attention only eight hours after she was brutally raped while she received counseling only 15 days later.
The victim has now identified the alleged rapist from the photo as being Monty M. Sanchez who is the nephew of the headmistress. The alleged rapist had visited the school on a couple of occasions prior to the rape and offered the victim chocolates. The victim has also identified from the picture Ashville Furtado the son of the Headmistress as being the person who had accompanied the alleged rapist, with a guitar, when he visited the school earlier.
Interestingly the school has around five maids positioned outside the toilets to help the children. On that fateful day mysteriously none of them were around. The rapist was fully aware that the victim due to a leg injury was on those days not going out on the playground during recess and used to remain in the class room.
The authorities have intentionally and malafiedly taken the investigation totally off track. The entire exercise is to ensure a cover up for the accused who are politically very well connected. Hundreds of Vasco residents have been interrogated though the needle of suspicion is abundantly clear. All that the police have to do is to physically confront Monty and Ashville with the victim girl. While Monty has allegedly fled to Dubai, Ashville is now at M.V.J College of Engineering at Bangalore. The police needed to also probe whether they were part of a larger crime ring against children. The police would have swung into action only if the victim was the child of a politician, cash loaded businessman or perhaps the child of a police officer
A perusal of the manner in which the Crime has been committed it is obvious that it has not been the rapist’s first such crime, and if he is not nabbed, it may not be his last. It is abundantly clear that the Headmistress and the staff abetted in this gory crime. If the rapist was a stranger as falsely claimed by the Headmistress he should have when spotted been escorted out of the school premises and handed over the police in which case the child would have been saved of this trauma of rape. The Headmistress and the staff failed in their bounden duty to ensure the child a safe environment
The Mormugao Port Trust which runs the school have been equally guilty of the cover up by sending its officer Suresh Shirwadkar to the victim’s home with a draft of Rs five lakhs to try and hush up the case .
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has tried to play to the gallery, but till date has not cared to visit the victim and her family. Infact on the day of the Crime he was celebrating at the local MLA’s birthday in the neighborhood of the scene of offence. The Chief Minister has publicly and repeatedly proclaimed that the victim and the family will get justice but the cover up by the authorities is blatant. On 11th February when the victim’s father along with some other parents accompanied by the local MLA met the Chief Minister he expressed his deep anger and resentment that the victim’s father had engaged me a his lawyer. Was the Chief Minister looking for an advocate who would bend and play to the cover up tunes of the authorities?
The Goa Children’s Act is unique wherein the burden of proving that the crime has not been committed is on the Accused.
After the December rape case in Delhi, candle light vigils and protests were held in Goa. But sadly when our very own little 7 year old innocent was brutally raped, Goa did not rise to the occasion. We have depicted our strange trait of rising only when it personally pinches us.
The School, the Police and the Government have miserably let down the chubby little victim and her grief stricken family. On 9th March this government will complete a year in office. Amongst its many misdeeds of the year, this hush up of the Vasco rape case will figure prominently. Now the Judiciary stands as the only hope for the victim and her family. May justice prevail.
The 7 year old little girl has her whole life ahead. She is too tender to realize what has been inflicted on her. We need to keep her in our thoughts and prayers that the Almighty may be her guiding light through this gruesome crime committed on her. I am reminded of the words of Carlos Santana “Look in the mirror and say to yourself, I am innocent and I am beautiful and I am pure. And I am not what happened to me.”
