Citing reasonable doubt, Goa Children’s Court on Friday acquitted Partha ‘Parthu’ Pratim Kar, resident of Srirampur in North Tripura on charges of raping a 11 year-old girl at Chicolna, Bogmalo, in Vasco in January 2014.
Parthu, who was arrested on January 14, 2014, was released from custody on Friday after having served over two years and eight months in jail.
According to the chargesheet filed by the Vasco police before the Children’s Court, the accused committed the crime on January 11 and January 13 in the year 2014. Also, on January 11, 2014, he criminally intimidated the victim by showing her a knife and threatening to kill her if she informed anyone about the incidents.
Arguing the case, defense counsel Adv Kautuk Raikar claimed that it was not the accused but the complainant in the matter who sexually assaulted the victim and the accused witnessed the offence. As a result, he was falsely implicated by the complainant, said the defence.
The victim is a native of Karnataka and resided at Bogmalo with the complainant’s family. The defence pointed out that the victim is not related by blood to the complainant, who already has four children and argued that she worked as a maid in his house as it was on record that both the incidents happened when she was washing utensils behind the complainant’s house.
The testimonies of the complainant and the victim on the duration of her stay at his Bogmalo residence varied. Despite his claim that she was his niece, the complainant couldn’t give details about the victim’s parents and where they lived.
In her judgment, Children’s Court President Vandana Tendulkar gave benefit of reasonable doubt to the accused while noting that the complainant’s relationship with the victim is not established. “Complainant’s testimony is full of contradictions and omissions on all material aspects of the two alleged incidents,” reads the judgment further stating that the complainant is an ‘uncreditworthy witness’.
The Court further noted that there was no clarity on where the victim’s clothes were attached from. The attached clothes of the victim were further discredited as the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, examination report was negative pertaining to the clothes retained by the medical officer at the time of medical exam of the victim being the clothes she wore during the so-called ‘second incident’ of sexual assault.
In addition to this, the medical exam of the victim failed to corroborate the account delineated in the charge sheet. Dr Madhu Ghodkirekar of Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, examined the victim on the night of January 13 at 10.20 pm, around 12 hours after the alleged second incident. His report prominently stated that there was red abrasion on the left thigh and on the nose of the victim. However, there was no external injury on her back or other parts, despite falling with force. The case of the prosecution was that the victim was allegedly dragged and forcibly made to lie on rough surface.
The investigating team could neither attach the cloth which was allegedly used to gag the victim at the time of committing the offence nor the knife used by the accused to threaten the minor.
On January 13, when word spread in the neighbourhood, a huge mob of around 200 people had gathered at the chawl. Yet, the police did not record statements of any of these persons.
None of the neighbours were cited as witnesses despite the spots of both the alleged incidents are open and accessible places, which are visible from all three rented rooms of the chawl.
Referring to the list of prosecution witnesses, the defence stated that most of these belonged to the Banjara samaj and as the complainant too belonged to the same community, they favoured his interest.
Previously, the court had discharged the owner of the chawl, Ramchandra Raikar, and another security guard Laxman Jadhav, who were also arrested and later released on bail. Raikar had locked Parthu in a room for a few hours till Jadhav came and took him to Bambolim stadium, where he was posted on duty at Lusofonia Games. Parthu had escaped into the forest behind the stadium and was caught after the police combed the entire space. Being the main accused, Parthu’s bail was rejected by the High Court.
