I among others received the message below direct to my mail box. The thread was started by Dr. Gilbert on Goanet and I followed. For the benefit of those who wouldn't know what we are writing about I am copying the message to Goanet. The posting is not offensive nor is it derogatory, in fact I have the greatest admiration for the writer/writers for showing such restraint in not naming the alleged raped girl. By posting this article, which is deemed to be an open letter I accept full responsibility.
Gabe Menezes. From: "Jaheshwar Deshpande" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: APPEAL FOR THE TRUTH APPEAL FOR THE TRUTH This is an open letter concerning the alledged gang-rape case at the Goa College of Art. Summary of the case so far: All medical tests conducted and processed in three different centers (in Mumbai, Bangalore included) have come back negative, besides the girls hymen being intact. According to the papers the gang-rape allegedly happened between the time 3:30 to 5:00 p.m in the womens toilet, on 17th May, the day of the final years farewell ceremony.But later they reported that it took place from 5.00 to 7.30 p.m.The Farewell ceremony had infact started around 5.45 p.m and ended around 6.45 p.m. The girl attended the farewell and took the college bus back to the Panjim main bus stand and reached her home at Porvorim at7:20p.m,approximately the time it takes to reach there by bus.Although this has been mentioned so far in the states newspapers,the timings at which the paper says that the farewell started are not true,According to the papers the farewell started at 5.00p.m and ended at 7.00p.m.The papers also forget to mention another important fact that 17th was the day on which the Examinations of the Fifth year Painting students and of theThird year Painting section, were going on.The examinations of the Fifth years began at 11.00am and ended at 5.00p.m. The newspapers made the Farewell party seem like a spectacular occasion,although the fact is that, students were given a pattice, a tea and a rose in the hand followed by a speech by the Principal,there was no music,it was a simple occasion where the girl was seen to be present for the whole time and casually exchanging one or two jokes with her teachers.The fifth year Painting section was also not informed of the Farewell and most of the students went home except for Four,two of them who are the accused and these four boys that too we! re waiting for the college bus and that's how they ended up going for the Farewell as they were told that the bus would leave only after the ceremony.The papers also say that the Farewell was hosted by the Third years which is not true, it was infact given by the Principal.It is also false that the Fourth year students refused to give the Fifth year students a Farewell Party,the fact is the FIFTH YEARS never harressed the fourth years and were also not expecting a PARTY from anybody.They were infact taken by surprise to know that they were being give a Farewell.Around thirteen students from applied fifth year section, and four from fifth year painting along with the college Faculty members attended the Party.The girl and another of her friend were the only one's from the third year who were present for the FAREWELL, that day. We as the students who were present on that day, who spoke to the girl on that evening, and who also on the same evening, spoke to the people she has accused of this henious crime, were key witnesses of the Police. We have testified to the police on the day following the boys arrest all that will be stated hence forth in this letter. We were and still are shocked and now throughly disgusted at the accusation and furthurmore at the proceedings of the press. This letter would not have been necessary in a free press but after the leading newspaper's, barring the Marathi newspaper's, refusal to take any middle stand on the issue whether the truth or not, we felt the need to find other avenues to voice the facts. In a democratic society we find no other open-forum other than the internet. This letter will be posted on all the notable Goan sites.The names of the alledged accused have being slandered in every newspaper. The majority of public, not knowing the story behind it are deeming them guilty before being proven innocent. We now place the facts before you: What follows are the police statements of some of the witnesses, with their permission and full support. We refer to the person who filed the case as the 'girl' not by name, on behest of the Womens groups and the State Womens Commission, even though the boys names have been splattered on all the newspapers every single time the case is mentioned. Witness no 1: A person from the girls class, where the exams were still on. Witness no 1 testified at the police station that the girl who has filed the case attended class from 11 o'clock till 1:30 when she went out for lunch. She came back by 2:30 to complete her exam. By 3:25 she submitted her work and left. The witness went to the canteen for tea at around 3.45p.m. The girl was sitting normally at the canteen chatting with friends, some which included the presently accused. She was the only one smoking, the rest were drinking tea. The witness left the canteen before the girl. Another friend of hers saw her going to the girls toilet once where she stayed for 2-3 minutes. The toilet door's of the college were never closed and a lot of people were moving around,as the toilets are just in the open corridor and close to the office. Witness no 2: is the main witness of the case. Witness no 2 attended a lecture for the final year students which started at 3:40p.m and ended at 4.25p.m one of the boys accused, was present for the entire lecture. After the lecture ended Witness no 2 left the class and walked downstairs where she met the girl right away. She was with the girl for the whole ceremony, which concluded at 6.45p.m. During the evening the girl was behaving absolutely normal. They spoke of holidays, the latest earring fads, the girl exclaimed about how sad it would be that Witness no2 would not be in college in the next academic year. A common friend even took a snap of the girl and Witness no 2 together. This is now prime evidence. The snap and the negatives have been handed over to the police. The girl who is the alledged victim was ,and looks in the photograph, happy and smiling with neatly combed hair and her salwa! r neat and spotless, her hand around Witness no2. The snap was taken outdoors and from the lighting it is clear that it was around 5:30 in the evening.The fifth year students who were going home after the exams also saw the girl sitting on the outside steps of the college and she was seen talking casually to the other girls.Her appearance looked the way it looked on any other day. What was more shocking to the police was that the salwar the victim wears in the snap and the one the mother handed to them as being the salwar the girl was wearing when she was allegedly raped, was clearly not the same one. The one handed over was of the same colour but had a print where the other had none. The salwar handed over had a big tear in it. Witness no 2 was also seated in the bus with the girl till it reached the bus stand where they went their seperate ways. Many other students spoke to the girl through the ceremony and found her normal. Witness no 3&4.These two witneses were! in the canteen at around 3.45p.m.The lecture started at 3.40p.m,they reached for the lecture at 3.50p.m before that they saw the girl sitting with her friends and the two accused who were then also her very good friends,they all seemed to be chatting casually.The accused came for the lecture at around 4.00p.m,before this time her friend has confirmed that she was with the girl in the canteen. The Statement of the Girl: The girl in the first statement claimed to remember exactly what happened to her, right down to the sequence of who raped her 1st, so on. A week back she changed her statement and said that only two boys were guilty. The recent change in statement has been put down to her traumatised state. There are further discrepincies in her statement which are amazing. She is still allegedly in a drugged state though no one in the artists community or the narcotics division can come! up with any drug that lasts nearly 15 days after it has been administered. The Statement of the Mother (A German national) is equally fluctuating. her statement starts by stating that her daughter came home that evening at 7:20, happy, in high spirits, and proceeded to do her homework. At the end of the statement she states that her daughters mood on entering the house was quiet, sobre and the mother felt something was wrong. Along with the statement she mentioned to the police the names of all the drugs she supposed had been administered to her daughter and their effects.From all this it seems that the mother knows what Drugs can cause what effects or symptons.The mother also stated that her daughter screamed for help.But the Toilets are within the hearing range of the office, So how come no one heard her?And since the mother says that the daughter was drugged than how come she sreamed in the first place? The father,a Kashmiri who owns a shop in Calangute has still not come before the police after repeated summons.! Behavoir of the Mother prior to the accusation: In the months preceeding this incident the girls mother confided to certain artist friends that she was going through financial difficulty after her seperation. She then went through a complete nervous breakdown, after which she went to Germany, where she is from. She then returned. it was known that the girl was sick in college on the 9th. On the 8th she was on drips. She came late for her exams which were going on, at around 12:00. Her mother came to collect her at 1:00. The mother on this day, 9th of May behaved in an unruly, rude and indisciplined way and demanded the postponement of the exam as her daughter was too sick to answer. The professors told her it was not possible. In the statements of the witnesses the movements of the girl are clearly accounted for. The press drastically edits letters of the families of the accused. It would not have made too much of a difference if news papers like the Herald did not print letters of students from other colleges writing that the alledged rapists fingers be pulled out and their hands rubbed in salt .Herald also reported that the Fifth Year is the roudiest batch.The report is entirely baseless because they have a reputation in college of being the dumbest batch and are quite used to this fact. We know public opinion will have no effect on the court case, where the truth will come through in the end, but we cannot stand by and watch our colleagues being made an example of for no basis. We are talking about peoples lives here and nobody has a right to play or toy with the lives of others . What do they have to go back to? As if being accused for rape and spending more than 15 days in jail isn't bad enough. The press should never be allowed to make the same mistake twice. Hopefully future reporting will show more maturity and stop stifling the truth with politics. We always thought that the solemn duty of the Fourth Estate was to give the public the facts and not one sided discriminatory reports to form opinions on. We end with a reminder of a previous rape allegation in Goa which was in the papers some time back. The allegation of rape was made by a UK national against a keralite masseuse. For lack of evidence the case was thrown out of the court. The lady then got hold of a copy of the FIR, and returned to her country. Under some insurence scheme over there she was able to collect what amounted to 40 lakhs. The Goa police came to know of it only because she sent 8 lakhs back to the Keralite with a message that basically "thanked him for the part he played"The Keralite took the whole sum to the police and the police found the rest out after a little investigating. These are the facts that we know and that has already been put before the police. Nothing more nothing less. We demand to know what is behind this and hope that the case opens up as soon as possible so that the truth is known. Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goa-Goans/message/11327 ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
