Team Goemkarponn
CUNCOLIM: Cuncolim saw tense moments as protesters staged a walkout to the police station and blocked the national highway, voicing their disapproval of the school and police officers for allegedly being indifferent to the September 26 assault of a Class III girl student by a classmate.
According to sources, Suvarna Fatorpekar, the mother of the youngster, was informed by some classmates that the seven-year-old girl was crying when she went to pick her up from the Veroda school in Cuncolim.
The mother discovered her confused and weeping daughter. After bringing her daughter to the Cuncolim PHC right away, Suvarna directed her to the South Goa District Hospital in Margao.
The girl’s head was bleeding, according to a medical scan. The girl was therefore sent to the Goa Medical College and Hospital Bambolim, where it was determined that she was internally bleeding.
At the moment, the girl is unconscious at the GMC. On September 27, the mother had filed a complaint at the Cuncolim police station, requesting an investigation against Lazima Fernandes, the class instructor.
Suvarna claimed in her complaint that the teacher ignored the girl and treated the incident casually after learning of the assault.
Furthermore, it was said that the mother and the locals were enraged because the police did not take any action on the complaint—even after five days.
They went to the Cuncolim police station on Wednesday and made a demand that the headmistress and the class instructor be summoned there to give testimony.
Sub-inspector Kavita Rawat, a woman police officer, filed a case under Section 125 of the BNS 2023 and Section 8 read with Section 2(M) of the Goa Children’s Act 2003 after feeling uneasy.
Nonetheless, the individuals who were against the police action blocked the highway next to the police station.
Chandrakant Kavlekar, former Quepem MLA, stepped in and discussed the incident with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
The class teacher was nowhere to be seen, so the cops proceeded to her house.
After residents planned a protest march on the police station on October 2, Cuncolim police eventually filed a formal complaint against the accused. On Wednesday night, the community marched to the police station, calling for PSI Kavita Rawat to be suspended and the accused to be taken into custody right now.
Senior police officers, mainly women in the mob, requested that the instructor be detained right away. Among them were recently promoted SP Santosh Dessai and SP (South) Sunita Sawant. They hurried to the police station.
