Our cabinet ministers quite often fall into the controversy by issuing vague statement in the press. Recently the tourism minister of Goa Dilip Parulekar has called the five youth involved in the gang rape of two Delhi girls as NADAAN (naïve) and small time criminals. He however later said that he is very disappointed to see that such crime takes place in the tourism oriented coastal belt. He also tried to convey the send the message to the tourist that this incident was very unfortunate and abnormal.
“The boys are ‘nadaan’ and have cases of small crimes registered against them. This will not happen in the future,” Parulekar told media. “I regret the incident which happened in Goa. The character of the boys involved in the rape of the women is not good. They were working in a hotel; and whichever hotel they worked in, they were booked for small-time robberies,” the minister said.
It has to be recalled that calangute police has arrested 5 accused involved in the gang rape case of two girls from Delhi in the resort at Calangute. They initially attacked the taxi driver and took the girls to hotel in calangute where they sexually assutlted these girls repeatedly. The girls were on their holiday trip to Goa.
The girls in their statement told the police that they were abducted and raped by the accused on Wednesday night and Tuesday before police team rescued them. The team of police reached on the crime spot after the driver of the taxi in which two girls were travelling lodged the complaint with the police in north Goa.
Meanwhile Parulekar has praised the prompt action of the Goa Police who left no stone unturned to arrest the culprits within very short span of time of seven hours. “Tourists should not think that these things are common in Goa,” the minister said.
Goa, a top beach tourism destination in India, attracts over three million tourists annually. However, several high-profile crimes against women over the past few years have put Goa in a negative light.
Source: IANS
