Goa minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate acquitted in rape case

She had made these claims to a counsellor in a protective home for women, who reported it to the local police.

During the investigation and following an ossification test to determine her age, charges under the Goa Children’s Act were dropped as her age could not be conclusively established at the time of the offence.

After the verdict on Wednesday, Monserrate said, “I had full faith in the judiciary of our country. I have been acquitted by the district court of all the allegations made against me. It has been a long wait… 10 years. How I have suffered each day… I know. I would like to thank my family, my friends and my supporters, who stood by me in this difficult time.”

Monserrate, at the time, had denied the allegations, terming the case a conspiracy against him and claiming he was being politically targeted. He was elected from St Cruz constituency on a Congress ticket in the 2012 assembly election. In 2015, he was expelled by the Congress for alleged anti-party activities and was an “unattached” MLA when the case was registered against him in 2016. He joined the Goa Forward Party in 2017 and returned to the Congress fold in 2019 for a brief period, before joining the BJP in 2019. Monserrate currently holds the Revenue, Waste Management and Labour and Employment portfolios in the Cabinet.

Defence counsel advocate Damodar Dhond told the media that the prosecution failed to prove the charges, pointing out inconsistencies in the statements of the complainant.

“The victim has given six different statements… each contradicting the other. In the first statement, she said she visited the home of the accused around 6 pm, where she was given something to eat and drink, and consequently, she fell unconscious and later regained consciousness the next morning around 11 am… during which time she claimed she was raped while she was unconscious. She did not specify on what date this occurred and gave a range of 61 days between March and April during which the incident could have taken place, which is absolutely absurd. Her phone records for the two months were checked,” he said.

“If a person is unconscious, they cannot make or receive calls, send or receive messages. The police could not find a date during the duration when they did not find calls or messages being sent or received from the phone. Later, she became nervous and changed her statement,” he said.

Dhond said the complainant later stated that she fabricated the allegations due to anger she held against her mother after watching an episode of the crime television show, Savdhaan India.