By IANS,
Panaji : The mother of a 14-year-old German girl who was allegedly raped by the kin of Goan politicians will move court against minister Churchill Alemao for slandering the reputation of the victim through an advertisement, her counsel said Thursday.
“Not only is the advertisement released by Mr Alemao (the public works department minister) slandering the reputation of the child, it is also contempt of court,” the German mother’s counsel advocate Aires Rodrigues told reporters at a press conference Thursday.
She said the advertisement violates the directions of the Goa Children’s Court, cautioning the media against using names or other information on such a victim.
The advertisement which appeared in the Oct 28 edition of Herald, a Goan English daily, besides identifying the girl’s mother by name, also claimed that the victim was “romping with men of older age at Goan night clubs”.
The mysterious ad, which claims to have the backing of 390 named individuals, also accused Rodrigues of indulging in bigamy.
Rodrigues also claimed that most of the names in the half page advertisement released in Herald, a local English daily, were bogus. “The advertisement also contains the name of Aditya Angle, the son of former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ramakant Angle. I have confirmed with Aditya, who told me that he wasn’t aware about the nature of the advertisement,” Rodrigues claimed.
Child Right’s Goa, an NGO working in the field of child rights, is due to petition the Goa Children’s Court this week, informing the latter of the blatant violation of its directive by the newspaper.
The sparring between minister Alemao and Rodrigues began after the former’s nephew Warren Alemao was also accused of rape by the mother of the minor German girl. The German mother, fighting for justice to her daughter, had filed a police complaint this month accusing Education Minister Atanasio Monserrate’s son Rohit of raping her daughter.