A Chhattisgarh native was arrested for allegedly raping an elderly woman in Goa.
Agacaim PI Vijay Rane said that the incident took place around 14 days ago, but was not reported as the 65-year-old woman lives alone and was scared to do so. The 34-year-old accused was arrested within 24 hours of registration of the crime.
The accused, a coconut plucker, used the pretext of dropping the woman to her home after both had visited a coconut plantation belonging to her daughter. “A few kilometres from the coconut plantation, the accused took a different route and went into the jungle where he raped her,” Rane said.
The Agacaim PI said that the accused and the survivor were neighbours and that a little over a fortnight ago the survivor had called for the accused to ask him to pluck coconuts. After visiting the plantation and considering the area, the accused told the survivor that he would do the plucking the following day, Rane said.
That is when the accused offered to drop the survivor to her home, he said.
The survivor was traumatised and did not reveal the incident to anyone, Rane said. However, the incident was known to the villagers, but not a single person came forward to inform the police, he said. Eventually, as the news of the incident spread in the village, one villager called the survivor’s daughter who lives abroad and narrated the incident to her.
The survivor has two daughters one of whom lives abroad while the other lives in North Goa. Rane said that the plantation belonged to the daughter who lives aboard.
“The daughter then lodged a complaint and a FIR was registered,” he said.
Rane said that on the day of the rape itself, the accused along with his wife and children left the house where they lived. “It was a blind case. We worked day and night and traced the accused who was staying at Sulcorna, Quepem,” he said.