Goa MLA applies for bail in rape case

May 15, 2016 02:12 am | Updated September 12, 2016 01:40 pm IST - Panaji:

Former Goa Minister Atanasio Monserrate, accused in the case of trafficking and rape of a minor girl, applied for bail in Goa Children’s Court on Saturday. Mr. Monserrate, an unattached MLA is currently in police custody.

He and the girl’s mother, who allegedly sold the girl to the MLA, were arrested on Thursday last week. After spending eight days in police custody, Mr. Monserrate has filed the bail application, which will come up for hearing on Monday.

‘Framed’

Denying charges of buying, sedating and raping the minor, Mr. Monserrate, a former Education Minister, said in his bail plea that he was being framed by his “political foes, particularly those in the ruling party.”

According to him, the girl was manipulated and persuaded to make false allegations against him to weaken him politically. “Due to the coming Assembly elections and being fully aware of the support I enjoy in my constituency, my political opponents in a frustrated bid to weaken me, have indulged in this shameful act of falsely implicating me, with the sinister motive of keeping me away from my people and to create obstacles in my path,” his bail plea said.

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