Two months on, plaint under SC/ST Act filed in Vasco rape case

Women activists under the aegis of the Civil Right Group today filed a complaint under the SC/ST Act in connection with the rape of a minor girl on the premises of a school in Vasco town in January.

The complaint filed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, with Vasco Police, also points out the delay on their part in arresting the unidentified accused involved in sexually abusing the seven-year-old in the school toilet on January 14.

The copy of the complaint is also given to Crime Branch which has formed a 20-member squad to crack the case.

Police has already registered a case under the Goa Children's Act and slapped various sections concerning rape, destruction of evidence and others of the Indian Penal Code against the accused.

Activists Auda Viegas and Albertina Almeida who filed the complaint among others said the fresh plaint under SC/ST Act also covers the police as they have "failed" to properly investigate the case even two months after the incident.

The father of the victim girl already moved a local court demanding arrest of the school staff, including Headmistress, who had given a bath to the girl and mopped the toilet after rape, thereby destroying the evidence.