TRAGEDY STRIKES VADDEM
— A 5-year-old girl child was the only daughter of the family who originally hails from Bengal
— The father is a watchman and had been in Goa for around 9 months along with his wife and daughter.
— Family would stay in a temporary room on the ground floor of the “under-construction” building
— She was with her father massaging his head till 12 am outside
— Father asked her to go and sleep but she never reached the room. This was realised at 2 am
— A day ago there was a molestation attempt on her mother
Goemkarponn desk
VASCO: Two labourers Upnesh Kumar (22) and Murari Kumar (24), both natives of Bihar working at under-construction site have been arrested in the five-year-old minor’s rape and murder by Vasco Police.
In a shocking revelation, the Goa Police has said that the 5-year-old girl child, whose body was found yesterday in suspicious condition, at Vaddem, Vasco, was raped and murdered in the wee hours of Friday.
The Vasco police have registered an offence of rape and murder on behalf of the state under sections 376, 302, the POCSO Act and sections of the Goa Children Act and are carrying out further investigation.
The port town on Friday morning woke up to a shocker after the body of the 5-year-old girl was found in suspicious condition at the under-construction site at Vaddem
According to the South Goa SP Sunita Sawant, two labourers have been arrested so far and interrogation is underway.
She said the parents found the body of the girl in the basement of the under-construction site.
“We got a call from Chicalim Cottage Hospital that a girl of around 5 years had been brought to the hospital and that during a check-up, the doctors realised that she had died. Immediately the Mormugao DySP Santosh Desai and Vasco PI Kapil Nayak began the investigation and we carried out the inquest panchanama and sent the body for post-mortem,” she said.
The SP said primarily it was observed that the girl had froth coming out of the nose and we had been waiting for the post-mortem results.
“We have realised that many migrants are working on the under-construction site and we have also called them for investigation,” said Sawant.
“The body was inspected by the police surgeon and the post-mortem was carried out on the body which revealed that the deceased girl was sexually assaulted. The post-mortem also revealed that the girl was murdered by smothering and strangulation and we have preserved the body,” she said.
“We have rounded up around 20 labourers who were working on the site and our interrogation and investigation are on. The Vasco police have registered an offence of rape and murder on behalf of the state under sections 376, 302, the POCSO Act and sections of the Goa children act and we are seriously investigating the incident,” said Sawant.
Massaged father’s
head till 12 am
According to sources, the 5-year-old girl child was the only daughter of the family who originally hails from Bengal.
“The father is a watchman and had been in Goa for around 9 months along with his wife and daughter. The girl child would usually accompany the father and the family would stay in a temporary room on the ground floor of the building which also housed many other temporary room-like structures in the building occupied by labourers and construction site workers,” informed sources.
These rooms are temporary structures and don’t have a proper lock system as such and each room houses around 2 to 3 labourers who can walk from one room to another.
On the fateful night, the girl child was with the father till about midnight playing around and had even been massaging the father’s head but after noticing the child was feeling sleepy, the father told her to go to the room to sleep with the mother.
However at around 2 am, when the father reached his room, he found that the daughter was not to be seen and he asked his wife about the daughter’s whereabouts.
The wife shockingly informed him that the daughter had not come to the room at all and that she had assumed that the daughter was with him.
When they realised that the daughter was not around, both of them started looking frantically for the daughter using the mobile phone torch and finally found the girl in the basement of the building at around 2.30 \am.
The parents immediately rushed the child, who had froth coming out of her nostrils, to the Chicalim Sub District Hospital where she was declared dead. The Chicalim Sub District Hospital later informed the Vasco police about the incident at around 3 am.
Molestation attempt on
mother, previous day
“Around a day earlier (Wednesday night), many of the labourers had been totally drunk and had been partying at night.
On the same night, the mother of the child had also felt that two labourers had entered the room and she felt the touch of a male hand in the dark while she was sleeping in the room with her daughter.
After the mother screamed and put on the lights in the room, the alleged persons rushed out of the area.
The watchman’s father had even complained to the supervisor about the incident the next day on Thursday morning who had assured him to take the issue up with the higher-ups the next day (On Friday) since it was Eid on Thursday.
The labourers are believed to have been drinking again on Thursday night and after the parents found the body of the girl in the basement of the building in the wee hours of Friday morning, the father of the child had gone to the rooms of the labourers to enquire into the incident. However, instead of wasting time to enquire about the incident, the family chose to take the girl child to the hospital on priority and save her life but she was unfortunately declared dead on arrival.
Considering the situation at the construction site where labourers had been drinking, The mother when inquired by the Vasco police, had directly alleged to the Vasco police that her child could have been raped and murdered, which came true after the post-mortem on Friday evening confirmed that the girl was sexually assaulted, raped and murdered by smothering and strangulation ” said the source.
