Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on Saturday took back his remarks on the gangrape incident a day after he courted controversy calling the rape of two Delhi women as a ‘stunt’ and that it was done by “naïve” youngsters. Parulekar’s comments on Saturday came minutes after the Goa Police officially confirmed the gang-rape on June 1, but also added the two victims, both from Delhi, were working as escorts in Goa.
“About the debate in the national media over the last four days, I only have to say that if anyone in the State or country felt hurt or bad by some of the words I uttered, I take them back,” Parulekar said. “let everyone be happy and help improve tourism overall,” Parulekar said. Parulekar triggered a controversy calling the gangrape a “stunt” and said there such things were bound to happen in a tourism State like Goa.
“I have said it earlier, I am saying it again, wherever tourism activity flourishes such minor incidents happen,” Parulekar had said on Thursday, adding “…the boys are nadaan (naive) and they have small crimes registered against them and this will not happen in the future.” Parulekar on Friday had also referred to the fact that neither the accused nor the victims were Goans, as a result of which the Opposition accused him of trivialising the issue.
The Opposition gunned for Parulekar’s head, for his callous remarks. “In order to cover up for its miserable failure to maintain law and order, will this Government stoop to the level of trivialising a gangrape nowIJ The audacity of the crime was shocking enough, that a group of young men can pose as policemen and gang-rape women in normal evening hours in a busy tourist area of Goa,” AAP spokesperson Valmiki Naik said.
The Goa Police on Saturday claimed to have found the motive behind the gang rape calling it a revenge abduction of two escorts, during which time they were raped by their abductors. “The complaint of gangrape and assault has been confirmed and verified… The girls were escorts who had been hired by the main accused Ajay Kushwa from Manoj, who owed him around Rs1.5 lakh,” Superintendent of Police (North Goa) Umesh Gaonkar told The Pioneer.