Frederick Noronha
Sat, 14 Aug 2004 03:32:33 -0700
########################################################################## # Don't just read the news... discuss it. Learn more about Goa via Goanet# # Goanet is a 10-year-old network launched by Herman Carneiro in 1994. # # See all archives http://news.gmane.org/gmane.culture.region.india.goa/ # # To join, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and ask to join GoanetDigest. # ########################################################################## News ACTION AT LAST * [Reproduced from TEHELKA by special permission] After the initial stonewalling, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has woken up and announced a slew of measures to check paedophilia in the state. The police have launched a crackdown on pederasts. Known child abusers have gone into hiding. Local bodies, including the Church and colleges, are launching awareness campaigns to educate the local population about child abuse by foreigners. VK Shashikumar and Mayabhushan Nagvenkar report The Tehelka expose on tourism-related paedophilia caught Manohar Parrikar~Rs BJP-led government in Goa off-guard. Leading TV news channel Aaj Tak broadcast the expose on August 5 and, around the same time, the full 40-minute film was screened for a select gathering of top Goan police officers. The next day the Tehelka investigative film, The Nexus of Silence, was screened for the public in Caritas Holiday Home, Panjim. It was also telecast on a local cable channel. Finally, Parrikar had to bow to public pressure and announce a series of measures to check child sex tourism in Goa. The cm also said that he would release the Ric Wood report on child sex tourism in Goa this week. This is the first substantive move on Parrikar's part after his bizarre reaction at a press conference where he implied that the Tehelka sting was carried out at the behest of pederasts. "The Ric Wood report mentions that such broadcasts by the news channels is just the kind of modus that have been used by paedophiles to popularise child sex tourism destinations," Parrikar had claimed. "More paedophiles would now flock to Goa's shores," he added. A day after the screening, Deputy Inspector General Narinder Singh Randhawa claimed that Jorg Harry Ringelmann, a suspected paedophile, had fled to Mumbai. Suddenly Ringelmann returned on Monday, claiming that he had gone on a tour to Mumbai and Pune. The moment he arrived he was escorted to the North Goa district police headquarters, where Additional Superintendent of Police AK Gawas served a deportation order on him. He was asked to report again the following day with his residential permit and a confirmed ticket to his native country, Germany. Television channels caught Ringelmann hiding behind his file of documents. He had a tough time as he tried to avoid the local press that had gathered at the Porvorim police station. While the police authorities were not willing to speak officially on the issue, sources informed that Ringelmann would be deported, as he was an "undesirable element" with incomplete documentation to support his claims on both the girls he was living with. Interestingly, Ringelmann's lawyer, Vilas Thaly, is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member and the state's former additional advocate general, with a penchant for controversies. Thaly told a private news channel that he would challenge the deportation order issued by the police. One of the points Ringelmann emphatically made during his meeting with SP Gawas was that his "wife" Dimple was six months pregnant and that he planned to start a restaurant in Chopdem. Police sources claim that the deportation order is only a consequence of some malpractices committed by the German in his business and has nothing to do with paedophilia. There is another question that needs an answer. What happens to his "adopted" daughter Mallika? Speaking off-the-record to a reporter from Goa 365, a cable news bulletin, she expressed her desire to come out of Ringelmann's clutches and requested the reporter to rescue her. She also said she was uncertain about her future. The local cable channel immediately made a representation to DIG Randhawa. Its editor, Rajesh Singh, wrote a letter to the police, requesting them to look into the matter. The very fact that Ringelmann is being deported means he is not being charged here for paedophilia. This despite DIG Randhawa's admission that the police had received information in April 2003 that "Sone foreign national by name of Ringelmann 'John' Harry, German national, holder of passport No. 5041803573 is suspected to be involved in paedophile activities." If the police can't even get the name of a suspected paedophile right how can they be expected to enforce the law. Therefore, Ringelmann's illegal adoption of Mallika and his paedophilic activities in India will go unrecorded. In fact, Mallika was picked up by the police late on Tuesday night and put in a government-run shelter home for children. And what of Dimple? Will the fraudulent marriage documents enable her to travel abroad with Ringelmann? Or will she stay with her parents? Police authorities have refused to speak to Tehelka on record vis-a-vis the Ringelmann affair. The D'Mellos -- Lucy and James -- who harboured French paedophile Bernard's victim were the first to be picked up by the Crime Branch. Sanju was the victim of Dreyfus Bernard Jean Paul. After claiming initially that Bernard was in Rajasthan, the police have now concluded otherwise. "The French national had arrived in India in October 2003 and had stayed in a flat in Goa for a month and reportedly left Goa in December 2003. He was reportedly moving with a boy during his stay. Police, despite making efforts, could not locate the minor boy," says DIG Randhawa. Despite police questioning, no arrests have been made yet in the D'Mellos case. The police have raised a wall of secrecy around the D'Mello family episode. There is no word as to whether efforts have been made to deny a visa for Bernard the next time he plans to travel to India. After being hauled up for questioning a couple of times, Lucy and D'Mello were let off. Tehelka reporters had tracked down the D'Mellos, who had for small amounts of money, harboured the French paedophile Bernard's victim Sanju. An hour after midnight last Sunday, the police raided the house of another suspected paedophile, Theodore Wilhem Anema, profiled in the Tehelka expose. Theo claimed that he had already written to the Directorate of Women and Children Welfare officially informing them about the two children he was moving around with. The two children who were being fostered by Theo have been withdrawn from his custody and sheltered at Bal Niketan. Members of the Crime Branch questioned Theo, before he was allowed to go following his disclosure that his "adoption deed" had been registered with the Directorate of Women and Children Welfare. Why hadn't the directorate verified Theo's antecedents? Why wasn't the "adoption deed" scrutinised when the law unambiguously states that for any adoption to be legal there must be a court order signed by the magistrate? Theo had picked up two boys from the streets of Mumbai and had brought them to Goa. The boys had been kept at a residence in Sangolda. The Calangute police had conducted a ramshackle inquiry, which had proved that "Theo was taking fatherly care of the children". The victims had been brought to the Calangute police station and interrogated. All these go against the very tenets of investigations into child sex crimes. Another paedophile profiled by Tehelka, David Meredith Vagg, has shut out the world from his life for an entire week. He has not stepped out of his house and is not taking phone calls. This elderly British national and a long running paedophile suspect on the Crime Branch list is just hoping that the storm passes by. His Fiat Peugeot with a Maharashtra registration was parked outside in the compound. When a Tehelka reporter went to meet him, Vagg refused to open the door of his residence despite repeated requests. Vagg is clearly shown as a suspected paedophile in a Goa police document, which is in Tehelka~Rs possession. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parrikar claimed that the expose had been carried at the behest of a rival tourist destination, seeking to divert Goa's tourist traffic towards its shores. He also argued that since Tehelka could list only a few tourism-related paedophilia cases in its five-month-long investigation, it was proved that the issue was not grave in the state. After spinning face-saving tales, the chief minister cautiously began a process of backtracking on his off-the-cuff reactions. It remains to be seen whether he will actually release the full version of the Ric Wood report or make only certain portions of the report public. In 2001, Ric Wood, a former Scotland Yard police officer, had been commissioned by the British authorities to track down paedophiles in Goa. Within two weeks Wood had compiled a dossier on 37 international paedophiles operating in Goa, more than half of who were British. The report had been put on the backburner by the Parrikar regime, fearing that disclosure of its findings would have an adverse impact on the tourism revenue earned by Goa. Among the first measures that the Parrikar government announced was a decision to ask the Central government to put in place a system whereby police authorities can track the arrival of a suspected paedophile in India. Earlier, in his immediate reaction to the expose, he had admitted the government's inability to keep a proper tab on foreigners entering the state from other states. He spoke about the need for an interlinking of passport checking systems at airports all over the country for easy verification of the antecedents of visiting foreigners. He also said that all children living with foreigners would be sheltered in Bal Niketan, a children's home run by the state government. But the government has not announced a follow-up plan. Will these children be looked after by the state? Who will fund their education and livelihood expenses? So much for his gung ho statements earlier, claiming there was no evidence of organised and widespread paedophiles in the state. Parrikar has also instructed the Directorate of Women and Child Welfare to compile a comprehensive list of orphanages and shelter homes, clearly implying that the department did not have such a list in its possession. The chief minister also announced Diwali as the deadline for setting up a children's court to try crimes registered under the Goa Children's Act, 2003. Finally, the CM admitted that the police force in Goa needed to be sensitised to deal with child abuse. According to him, so far policemen have been insensitive in dealing with such crimes. He also said that local communities should be sensitive to paedophilia cases and report instances of child abuse to the police. The chief minister's admissions after an initial bout of stonewalling shows that Tehelka expose has stirred the local administration to crack down on pederasts who have turned Goa into a haven for child sex tourism. The Archdiocese of Goa has decided to screen the film in all its 156 parishes throughout the state, starting with coastal Goa first. Father Valeriano Vaz, director of Caritas, has chalked out a plan of action that involves energising the social action groups of each parish by first screening the film and then holding a discussion on the issue of tourism-related paedophilia. By the end of this year, the Tehelka film, The Nexus of Silence, will be screened in 50 parishes in coastal Goa and then will move on to the other parishes. With the main tourism season scheduled to start in Goa next month, this community initiative will mobilise the local people to help the local authorities to crack down on sex abuse of children by visiting foreigners. Another instance of a community movement as a result of the Tehelka expose is the screening of the film across colleges in Goa. A film club in Goa run by concerned citizens and teachers is organising it. The first screening of the film is on Thursday, August 12. [Reproduced on Goanet by special permission from Tehelka (c)Tehelka 2004]