Goa: Woman who accused Monserratte of rape goes missing

The woman who lodged a rape case against former Goa minister and Congress' Panaji bypoll nominee Atanasio Monserratte has gone missing from a rehabilitation facility here, police said on Monday.

Verna police inspector Sandesh Chodankar said the woman, who charged Monserratte with drugging and raping her in 2016 when she was a minor, was undergoing rehabilitation at a facility in South Goa district from where she went missing on April 28.

Last month, a missing person complaint was lodged and later on May 10, the police registered an FIR for offence of abduction against an unknown person, Chodankar said, adding that efforts were on to trace the woman.

Monserratte, who is contesting the upcoming Panaji Assembly bypoll on Congress' ticket, was booked in May 2016 for allegedly raping the woman in March that year, when she was 17 years' old.

A charge sheet was later filed against him by the police in the district court of North Goa.

Auda Viegas, director of a South Goa-based NGO, said the victim was initially kept at a state-run facility for juveniles, but later shifted to a convent in South Goa as part of her rehabilitation.

Viegas accompanied officials of the convent on April 28 to file the complaint, after the victim went missing.

She said the victim was pursuing a fashion designing course, and feared that she might be at "risk" as the case involving her was "high-profile".

Meanwhile, Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee chief Pratima Coutinho said her unit was willing to help the woman if she comes.

Coutinho also added that Monserratte was innocent and had been framed, and accused the ruling BJP of raising the issue in view of ensuing polls.

The Goa Suraksha Manch alleged that the BJP-led state government had failed to provide the victim protection.

"The government led by chief minister Pramod Sawant only bothered about the Panaji bypoll. He has no time to run the government," GSM functionary Hridaynath Shirodkar said.

The by-election to Panaji Assembly seat will be held on May 19.