Dutch tourist recalls assault horror in Goa

Police on Thursday arrested a man hailing from Uttarakhand who worked at a hotel in Goa for allegedly attacking a woman tourist from the Netherlands. The incident had taken place late Friday night.

As per a report in The Indian Express, the 29-year-old woman had arrived in Goa for a yoga retreat when she was raped by a staff member at the resort where she was staying. The 27-year-old man who used to work as a bartender at the resort has now been arrested by the Goa police.

“After dinner at the resort, I went to sleep in my tent. The tent did not have a door; it was just a fabric. Around 2 am, suddenly the light was switched on. I woke up and saw a man removing the mosquito net around the bed. He had duct tape in his hand and he tried to grab me,” the woman told the police, adding that she planned to stay in the resort only for one night before heading to the yoga retreat.

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As the woman screamed for help, the man asked her to “shut up” otherwise he would kill her. In her defense, as the imposter tried to put his fingers in her mouth, she bit him and tried to push him off the bed while frantically yelling for help. Hearing her cries, another man entered her tent.

Initially, I was scared that he was an associate of the accused, but he told me that he was there to help, and a fight ensued between the two,” she allegedly told the police.

The accused reportedly ran away after that only to return with a knife that he used to stab the other man who had come to help. As the injured man ran to seek help, the assaulter stabbed the dutch woman as well. She however managed to overpower the man, snatched the knife from him and asked him to leave. The man allegedly picked up his phone and left after that. Eurico Nayan Dais, the man who rushed to help the foreign national, told The Indian Express that he was at his house having dinner when he heard screams from a nearby resort.

“The resort is over 30 meters from our house. I scaled the wall of the resort compound and entered her tent. I saw the accused was on top of the woman. I kicked him and punched him and he ran away. I took a bedsheet and covered the woman. But, he suddenly appeared again and stabbed me with a knife. Blood was gushing from my head. I rushed to seek help; I went to my family and told them to save the woman,” he said.

Dais works at a beach resort as a food and beverage manager. He is currently undergoing treatment owing to the multiple injuries in his head and back.

“After the incident was reported, a team was formed and the accused was immediately arrested. The knife has been recovered,” Nidhin Valsan, SP, North Goa said.

The accused has been charged under sections 207, 354, 452 and 506(II) for attempt to murder, assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint and if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt respectively.